The City of Joburg will make recommendations to the Gauteng Disaster Management Centre to prioritise repairing a sinkhole in the Thembelihle informal settlement because it poses an environmental hazard.
The City’s Disaster Management Centre has inspected the sinkhole in Region G to ascertain the level of rehabilitation needed and has found it to be an inevitable catastrophic disaster.
The sinkhole was caused by a burst pipe, which led water to sip into existing cracks underground. The gradual sinking of landforms to a lower level has weakened the ground, leading to soil erosion, which has exacerbated the sinkhole. Community members told City officials illegal dumping, one of the problems plaguing the informal settlement, has polluted the underground water table, worsening the situation.
The City’s spokesperson for Disaster Management, Niel Rooi says the nearest household to the sinkhole is bound to be affected by subsidence because the hole was extending diagonally underneath the earth crust.
Rooi notes that the extension of the sinkhole means the initial cost of rehabilitation will likely increase.
“This sinkhole is a huge hazard for schoolchildren and adults who use this affected road daily to access their schools, places of work and public transport. It certainly requires urgent repair,” he says.
Selina Matola, a resident of Thembelihle voiced her frustration with community members seen to be apathetic about the impending environmental disaster.
“The municipality can try better our situation here but because we are the way we are, nothing will uplift this community. I haven’t been staying in Thembelihle for long, but I have been here long enough to realise that my fellow residents don’t care about the environmental impact on their children and the community at large,” Matola laments.
According to DBI Consulting Engineers, an infrastructure consulting company appointed to repair the sinkhole, the Thembelihle informal settlement is built on dolomite rock, which is known to be associated with catastrophic collapse. The depth of the bedrock ranges between 0 and 80 metres, with variations of up to 60 metres demonstrated over noticeably short horizontal distances of less than 10 metres.
Rooi notes that the sinkhole is currently overgrown and artificially closed due to illegal dumping.
The Gauteng Disaster Management Centre has established a sinkhole steering committee to assess all sinkholes in the province. The City’s Disaster Management Centre forms part of this delegation, which makes recommendations about which sinkholes need to be rehabilitated as a matter of urgency.
Written by Gontse ‘GeE’ Hlophe
19/01/2022