Sewage woe resolved
BY JESSIE COLQUHOUN
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For eight years Tekerei Tiatoa's life has been going down the drain but things are finally starting to look up.
Mr Tiatoa has had to put up with overflowing drains and raw sewage flowing past his flat in Otara Court housing for the elderly on East Tamaki Rd.
Four of the drains are right outside his flat and when they overflow, raw sewage washes down the footpath outside his bedroom window and into a stormwater drain.
It’s happened a couple of times every year for the past eight years, he says.
"It’s an ongoing problem."
Mr Tiatoa spent last Christmas at his son’s home and came back to his flat to find what he calls a "late Christmas present".
"What you could see was everyone’s Christmas dinners from the day before flowing down my path," he says.
"The smell greeted me when I walked down to my place – it was full-on."
He called Manukau City Council asking to get the mess cleaned up but was told all maintenance workers were on holiday and he’d have to wait until morning.
By noon the next day the workers had come to clean up the mess but he says "by that time it was well cooked on to the concrete".
The sewage had also started to run under his flat and Mr Tiatoa had problems sleeping at night because of the smell.
He was also worried about the potential health and safety risks and was frustrated no one would help him.
So he wrote to mayor Len Brown, the chairman of the Otara Community Board and the chief executives of both Manukau Water and Manukau City Council.
Otara Community Board deputy chairman Bill Wiki raised the issue at a meeting and asked what the board could do to help Mr Tiatoa.
"When we got the letter we knew something had to be done," Mr Wiki says.
But all he could really do was notify the council and he too grew frustrated at the inaction.
"They’ve known about this for a long time," Mr Wiki says. "Somebody’s not doing their job."
Finally Manukau Water stepped in to investigate.
Its chief executive Raveen Jaduram says the council-controlled organisation knew there were problems at the property but found nothing wrong with Manukau Water’s pipes.
Staff thought it was something to do with the Otara Court pipes and therefore up to the landlord to fix.
But, of course, the landlord is the Manukau City Council, which Manukau Water is a part of.
He says Manukau Water staff would check the pipes – which were clear – and clean up but still the blockages persisted.
So they sent video cameras down and discovered two sewerage pipes – which were not shown on the property plans – that actually went under the neighbour’s house.
One of these had a dip where the sewage collected and eventually blocked the pipe, causing the overflow.
"We believe we never solved the real problem because we never knew what the real problem was," Mr Jaduram says.
"We know now and we have a solution."
Manukau Water will put in a new pipe on the neighbour’s property and connect the Otara Court units to the new line.
Mr Jaduram doesn’t know when the pipes will be fixed but says he’s talking to the neighbouring landowner and getting quotes from the contractor.
"I’m hoping we’ll have the problem sorted quickly."
It’s a relief for Mr Tiatoa whose problem may finally be flushed away.
- © Fairfax NZ News
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