20 housing estates face sewerage issues, says PMC |15 March 2021

Mr Choppy and Ms Antha talking to the press on the sewerage issues at some housing estates across the country (Photo: Thomas Meriton)

The government body responsible of managing housing estates, Property Management Corporation (PMC), has observed a notable increase in sewerage problems at various housing estates across the country.

Most of the housing estates that are facing these sewerage issues were built some years ago and, unlike the more modern and recent estates, they do not have a sewage treatment plant or connected to the PUC wastewater treatment line.

Instead these housing estates were designed with more traditional wastewater catchments, namely septic tanks or soak away pits.

With most people staying at home due to restrictions, closure of schools and some workplaces, PMC has noted an increase in sewerage issues.

“PMC has on different occasions attempted to remediate the situation by constructing new soakaways where possible, but there are estates that are so saturated that it is impossible to construct new systems and these estates are placed on pumping schedule,” stated Evelina Antha, chief executive of PMC.

A total of 20 estates are currently on the pumping schedule whereby sewage pump trucks are brought in on a regular basis to pump out the wastes. Some estates such as the ex-Troian at Barbarons have to be pumped more than once a week.

“We currently have 20 estates on the pumping schedules; these are the most critical ones. Other estates that are having certain sewerage issues, we do attend to them when necessary,” she noted.

Other estates that feature on this schedule include Copolia, Brilliant Emergency, Mont Signal, ex-Winstal Vital, Danm Lerwa, Rivière Sèche, Vilaz Lesperance, Remiz, North East Point village, Grand Anse flat, Société du Logement, Amitié (ex-teachers), Mirabelle, Kan Tobrouk (phase 1 and 2) and ex-Albert.

“We are spending R633,000 every month which equates to R7.5 million per year to pump out waste at these estates,” revealed Ms Antha.

She made note that this problem has been ongoing for quite some years, which is why the more recent government housing developments such as the 24/24/24 projects have been conceptualised with modern sewage treatment plants.

“We have a long-term plan for most of our estates encountering sewerage issues, some of the projects that we have started are the connection of ex-Troian to the sewage treatment plant at Vilaz Orchid in Barbarons. We also have started work to connect Remiz estate at Anse Royale as well as the Vilaz Lesperans STP project, the St Andre drain field project, ex-Onezime connection project,” Ms Antha said.

“Some of these will be connected to the PUC wastewater treatment line, some STP projects and some drain field projects,” explained Ms Antha.

About eight sewerage improvement projects have been earmarked as priority, and the government had last year provided PMC with R10 million to undertake these sewerage projects.

“On our side, we have asked our estate supervisors to monitor vulnerable places where problems occur. This is a challenge for PMC and we recognise that it is an inconvenience for our clients so we are trying our best to come up with solutions,” said Ms Antha.

Most housing estates in the central region fortunately do not have to face sewerage problems since they are connected to the PUC treatment facility.

Principal secretary for land and housing, Yves Choppy, added: “All estates are constructed by our ministry. We always supervise these projects but there are instances where we cannot predict whether these waste catchments will function properly. We also have issues with groundwater, where the water can mix with the discharge in the soakaway pits, and the discharge resurfaces.

“If we identify that there are improvements on the catchment areas then we rectify but often the overflow issues are due to failing soakaway pits or drain field rather than tank that are not big enough or not well constructed.”

“Ideally, PUC has a national sanitation master plan comprising regional treatment plants…this is a work that takes a long time to achieve especially when they have to line pipes in communities which could bring about way-leave issues. PUC has yet to gather all of the financing for this,” said Mr Choppy.

Elsie Pointe