NO ACTION BEING TAKEN TO STOP THE ENVIRONMENTAL DESTRUCTION OF THE OTTAWA RESIDENTIAL AREA

ETHEKWINI MUNICIPALITY FAILS THE RATEPAYERS AND RESIDENTS OF OTTAWA, NEAR MOUNT EDGECOMBE

(SOME ONE SETTING UP WHAT RESIDENTS SAY A PANEL BEATING SHOP IN SCHOOL ROAD, OTTAWA)

(SCRAP YARD IN MAHARAJ ROAD, OTTAWA) By Subry Govender The residents of the small village of Ottawa, near Verulam on the North Coast, are up arms over the failure of authorities to take action to put a stop to the general degeneration and degradation of their residential area. Their main concerns are the use of residential land for heavy industries such as vehicle scrap yards, container depots, panel beating shops, parking for heavy trucks and the general damage caused to roads, telephone lines, and electricity poles by huge trucks. The residents are also perturbed at the destruction of the Ohlanga River by trucking companies that dump dirt, filth and sand into the river. One company set up a business on the river itself after dumping tons of sand near the old Ottawa bridge. In the latest developments, a company has set up a container depot in one of the residential roads and another businessman has started preparations to set up a panel beating shop in another road.

(TRUCKS DUMPING SAND INTO A PROPERTY AT THE END OF RIVERVIEW ROAD. THIS PROPERTY HAS NOW BEEN CONVERTED INTO A CONTAINER DEPOT) The facilitator of the Ottawa Environmental Forum, Ms Andisha Maharaj, said they had repeatedly taken up their concerns with the municipality over the past few years but nothing had been done to rectify the situation. She said they had submitted another plea to the municipality on September 27 after the residents held a meeting to highlight their anger at the general degeneration of their residential area. They had also taken up their concerns with the Department of Environmental Affairs and the Department of Agriculture.

(TRUCKS PARKED IN RIVERVIEW ROAD, OTTAWA) “These issues have been raised with various departments telephonically and in writing by several residents of this area on many occasions over the past few years,” she said. “However, actions by the relevant departments to address these issues have been minimal. The residents of Munn Road and Riverview Road have become increasingly frustrated by the lack of appropriate action. As a result, we have decided collectively to demand immediate action by the relevant departments to address our concerns.” Ms Maharaj said they were also concerned about the poor standard of repair work carried out on damaged roads. “An area repaired mid-last year is now sinking. It is, therefore, assumed that eThekwini Municipality has no quality control measures in place to hold contractors accountable and liable for poor workmanship. “There is either not many inspectors to perform such check and balance or it is a case of lack of interest on the part of Municipality side to check on the guarantee of remedial work performed. “The shoddy work practice means another contractor will be summoned and more tax payers’ monies wasted to repair the repaired work. All very illogical and a waste of resources.”

(THE DESTRUCTION OF THE OHLANGE RIVER NEAR THE OTTAWA BRIDGE BY A BUSINESSMAN) She said the municipality’s Parks and Gardens had set up a small garden at the entrance to School Road but had failed to maintain the garden. “Failures at these basic levels is disconcerting. Unless a resident telephones to complain about road verge overgrowth – no one from the Municipality bothers to follow up on a routine basis. “It must, therefore, be asked: ‘What are people in the Municipality getting paid for?’” She said officials of the municipality’s planning department and the building department had acknowledged their latest petitions and she hoped that action would be taken to save their residential area from destruction and degeneration.

One of the residents, Dr Atom Dilraj, whose forefathers had first moved to Ottawa in the early 1900s, said like other residents he was deeply disturbed at the failure of authorities to protect the residential nature of the area. “We pay our rates and taxes but yet we only see filth, rubbish, air pollution, destruction of our river, heavy trucks and illegal heavy industries causing degradation of the area,” said Dr Dilraj. “This sort of destruction of the environment and a residential area cannot be allowed, especially in our new democratic order.” Ends –subrygovender@gmail.com Oct 6 2016