[imagesource:here]

Capetonians are having it rough right now, huh?

Last week it was a suspicious green substance on Sea Point beach, and now we can add sheep heads, lawnmowers, ovens and other goodies clogging up the sewers.

Let me run that by you one more time – sheep heads, lawnmowers and ovens are clogging up Cape Town’s sewers as we speak.

It costs the city R170 million to fix the blockages and overflows caused by the build-up of sheep heads and household items.

Grossed out? Well, that’s not the only kak you’ll find down there.

More from Times LIVE:

Smaller items flushed into the system such as condoms and human hair stick to massive balls of congealed cooking oil in the city sewers.

The mental images I’m getting of this are disturbing. Capetonians, why you gotta do the sewers dirty like that?!

Xanthea Limberg, the mayoral committee member for informal settlements‚ water and waste services‚ and energy, wasn’t impressed, either:

[Limberg] said that residents were abusing the sewage system‚ increasing blockages from 293 per day in the 2015/16 year to an average of 330 per day in 2017/18 …

“The persistent misuse of the sewer system continues in areas across the metro‚ causing blockages and overflows which place the health of our environment and communities at risk‚” said Limberg. “It also wastes city resources which could rather be used to extend service delivery to our communities.”

If you’re into visuals and have a strong stomach, take a look at what the Mother City’s sewer system has to deal with:

There you go. If you’re wondering why your pipes aren’t flowing properly, it’s not just due to lack of maintenance.

Limberg continued her lecture/diatribe:

Common causes of blockages include rags‚ nappies‚ tampons and sanitary pads‚ wet wipes‚ condoms‚ general litter‚ building materials and the build-up of cooking fat or oil.

BTW, stuff like this is illegal to flush, according to local by-laws.

To prevent these things from blocking up the sewers, Limberg tells us not to flush cooking oil:

In the case of cooking oil or fats: when these substances are poured or flushed down your sink or drain‚ they harden and build up on the inside of the sewer pipes and act like glue‚ attracting rags‚ hair‚ paper and other debris.

Residents should rather please let grease cool and harden in the pan‚ and then scrape it along with any food scraps into some newspaper or paper towel and dispose of this in the kitchen bin

Great. Lovely. Thank you again for the visuals.

Now please excuse me while I go hurl in peace.

[source:timeslive]