Table View families evacuated due to sewage flooding

City Fire and Rescue teams have evacuated at least six Table View families from their homes via rubber duck boats following a pump station failure that led to the flooding of their homes and streets on Monday. 

The evacuation comes just two months after the residents penned a warning to City officials that included a report by a resident on the Protected Area Advisory Committee, concerning the sewage overflow into Rietvlei Lagoon.

The roads affected on Monday included Hof Street, Hof Road, Sprigg Road and others.

The City confirmed that one of the two pumps had been restored at the station and that notices had been sent out on Friday to alert residents of the station failure. 

Irate residents also called out ward councillor, Sue van der Linde, claiming she was inactive and had failed to respond to the catastrophe.

Van der Linde, who was on site Monday night, said she was aware of the complaints, and assured residents that officials together with herself were working around the clock to make sure residents were safe and the sewage was being pumped out of the streets and homes.

She confirmed that evacuations took place with ambulances teams on standby while residents were issued with third party claim forms.

"We are pumping and dumping thousands of litres of sewage water and we have two vacuum trucks running at a time," she said. 

"I have been here since the early hours of the morning (Monday).

"I was here on Sunday despite on what is being said and overnight the levels did rise.

"We had disaster and fire and rescue out who got people out of their homes and ambulance teams were on standby.

"I have issued residents affected with third party claim forms and will be assisting anyone who needs help."

Photographs of homes, streets, and the Rietvlei Lagoon submerged in sewage water, show the dire situation and have previously indicated that a lowered manhole was the cause behind the flooding.

By Monday, City mayco member for water and sanitation, Zahid Badroodien, apologised for what happened.

“Due to the continuous high inflow into the pump station, the restoration of operations has been difficult and unsafe for staff, but it is being attended to and teams are also attending to subsequent sewage overflows in the community.

“City teams are monitoring this matter very closely and will continue to do so until the matter has been resolved and affected properties have been cleaned.

“Residents can also contact their local ward councillor for any further updates, which will be provided when these become available.”

He also cautioned residents to reduce the flow of waste water.

The Protected Area Advisory Committee (PAAC) Report was previously shared with the Cape Argus in February after resident Kevin Sherman of the Flamingo View Home Owners Association and a representative of the Table Bay Nature Reserve Protected Area Advisory Committee (PAAC), representing 50 households, presented it.

Sherman highlighted the Rietvlei Lagoon sewage overflow and claimed a Water and Sanitation official lowered a manhole in 2023, causing overflows that never occurred from 2012-2023. 

“Our councillor should be moving mountains to ensure the environmental disasters cease.

“Instead of reposting the propaganda coming from Water and Sanitation, she should be questioning every official involved in this debacle and reporting back to the community on what she has done to improve the situation."

Resident, Philippe Roche, said the impact was so bad that people had to be evacuated and even their pools and other parts of their properties were damaged.

“Residents started complaining about a strong sewage smell on Friday and sewage coming out of manhole covers and it was ignored by the City," said Roche.

“Now residents are sitting with streets being flooded with sewage and entire properties ruined.  One resident has even complained his pool has lifted.”

Paul and Marilyn Stein Steyn were evacuated from their home and said: “We will be staying with family. I cannot fault the City officials who are here now as they were reactive with their effort.”

Another resident, Tobie van Ryn, took to the Tableview Ratepayers Association’s Facebook page: "By Sunday, 6 April, the only plan in place to resolve the crisis involved using two 5000-litre vacuum tankers to remove raw sewage and drive it 2.5km away to dispose of it. This plan quickly proved ineffective, as the water levels continued to rise and the sewage spread further into homes.

"After three days, we’ve finally been informed that this is now being treated as a disaster situation only after escalation and pleading with the councillor. It’s taken this long for someone to finally acknowledge the severity of a crisis that began on Friday night."

Cape Argus