Burst sewerage line causes huge stink at Hadfield St

A burst sewerage line caused a huge stink at the corner of Hadfield and Smyth streets yesterday, flooding the area just behind the Brickdam Police Station with sewage and inflicting discomfort.

Persons in the area said that in a matter of minutes the entire road was flooded with the nasty sewage. “I start smell something stink, stink and when I look around I see the road flood out and dem boys tell me is the sewerage burst,” a resident said.

A vehicle manoeuvres through the effluent caused by the burst sewerage line at the corner of Hadfield and Smyth streets yesterday afternoon.
A vehicle manoeuvres through the effluent caused by the burst sewerage line at the corner of Hadfield and Smyth streets yesterday afternoon.

A shopkeeper who declined to be named told Stabroek News that the incident happened around 1pm and that everywhere was flooded. A couple of hours later, a team from the Guyana Water Inc (GWI) arrived and “turn off” the sewerage, the shopkeeper said.

Public Relations Officer of GWI Timothy Austin told Stabroek News that a sanitation team was deployed to the area right away. He said he was informed that plastic, condoms and cloth were found in the line. He pointed to the continued bad habit of customers flushing prohibited items “items” down the toilet; abusing a system that is already too old.

“Recently we have been working on a campaign to get persons to stop dumping items such as condoms and food boxes that will clog the system.” Austin said. He added that persons are in the habit of flushing sanitary napkins and other articles down the toilets and this caused problems.

He also said that there were issues where persons took the metal covers off the chambers and dumped clothing inside them.

Over the years, GWI has been appealing to customers to desist from dumping garbage into the sewerage system.