Alex storm drains cleaned

Transport department and JRA employees muck to clean kerb inlets, patch potholes and level vergesLitter was cleaned out of the storm water drainage system in Alexandra and the drains were unblocked in a joint Transport Month, Letsema roads campaign.
BROKEN bottles, steel wire, paper and plastic were removed from storm water drains around the Pan African Shopping Centre in Alexandra in a mass clean-up yesterday.

The managing director of the JRA, Duduzile Maseko pitches inThe managing director of the JRA, Duduzile Maseko pitches inTransport department staff joined workers from the Johannesburg Roads Agency (JRA) for the clean-up, a Transport Month activity.

Transport Month is held nationally each October, seeking to deal with issues such as road safety and protecting roads and storm water infrastructure. The theme for this year is Connecting People and Places.

Alarmed by the state of the storm water drains, the managing director of the JRA, Duduzile Maseko – who had pitched in to help – urged people to consider recycling as a business. “I don’t understand why people in Alexandra are busy complaining about poverty when they are busy throwing money down the drain,” said Maseko.

Wearing bright orange work gear, transport department and JRA employees mucked in with general workers in cleaning kerb inlets, patching potholes and levelling verges. Among those who turned up to help were the City’s executive director of transportation, Lisa Seftel, and the Speaker of council, Constance Bapela.

Maseko said the clean-up was part of the Letsema campaign being rolled out citywide by the roads agency. “The key thing is to ensure that there is mobility on the roads and infrastructure is maintained,” said Maseko.

Letsema, a Sepedi word meaning “work together” is a comprehensive approach to rendering services such as closing potholes, patching roads and cleaning streets.

The kerb inlets need to be clearedThe kerb inlets need to be clearedRegarding pavements, Maseko said the agency would be implementing an “adopt a pavement programme” that would encourage businesses, residents and informal traders to take care of pavements that were near them.

“We get a lot of waste left on the pavements which can cause an obstruction. If we can get people to participate in keeping their pavements clean, it would help a lot.”

Seftel said a large quantity of litter was finding its way into the drainage systems. “People should be made aware of their actions, to reduce litter entering the storm water drains,” she added.

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Litter bug
Motshabi Mawong, a community development worker in the department of local government housing, said authorities were failing to enforce effective penalties that would act as deterrent to litterers.

“It is crucial for the JRA to form a partnership with [metro police] to ensure the culprits who dump litter in the streets are penalised,” said Mawong.

The JRA depot manager, Francis Ledwaba, said maintenance of the system was very difficult because of the high population density and congested nature of backyard shack settlements, making access very difficult or impossible in some places.

“The increasing growth of population in Alexandra has resulted in overloading of the infrastructure such that water pressures are low and sewers are frequently blocked and tend to overflow.”

He said that in spite of the warnings, Alex residents continued to dump rubbish in the storm water drains or build structures on top of manholes covers. Although they had covered some storm drainage systems with grids to prevent litter from getting into the system, these grids were regularly stolen by thieves.

Work undertaken on Tuesday, 10 October included painting street names and putting up poles and road signs.

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