Disciplinary actions will be taken against municipal workers who have pumped raw sewage into a field, the Naledi municipality in North West said recently.

“The incident was reported on Monday [28 September]; we started with investigation and obtained photographs. It is not our policy [to pump raw sewage into the field],” water and sanitation manager in the Naledi municipality Leon Pretorius said.

He said the incident was being investigated and action would be taken against workers involved.

The Democratic Alliance (DA) in Naledi, said it has photographic evidence in their possession, showing Naledi municipality officials pumping raw sewage into a field near Devondale village.

“Workers of Naledi were caught on camera, the second time in a month, while they were busy pumping out sewage from their tankers into an open field,” DA councillor in the municipality Louwna Pretorius said.

He said municipal manager Modisenyane Thompson Segapo had previously promised to give urgent attention to the problem of sewage dumping, but has ignored the problem and broken his promise.

“For this reason, the DA will report Segapo to the Green Scorpions, under the Environmental Management Inspectorate of the Department of Environment,” she said.

Pretorius said last month raw sewage was running down the streets in Vryburg, due to sewage pipes that broke because of overall lack of maintenance to the sewage disposal system.

“Some residents of Vryburg have permanent sewage welling up in their backyards,” she added.

“An investigation is long overdue as the municipality continues to ignore the sewage crisis, and now is making it worse by dumping raw sewage into open fields”.

–African News Agency