WITH the rain seemingly endless over the past week and waterways rising across the region residents of a heavily populated urban area of Lithgow have been facing a distressing but all too familiar problem.
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Whenever Farmers Creek water levels rise above a point where outlets are swamped by a back up through the mains it floods the sewerage system in parts of the Extension Estate and residents lose their toilet facilities.
And predictably it has happened again since the weekend.
Residents have been complaining about the problem for well over 50 years but have been offered little more than tokenism from a Lithgow Council seemingly reluctant or unable to deal with what really is a Third World issue.
The first indication of what is to come is when water begins to well up in toilet bowls followed sometimes by surcharges from gully traps.
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"This is Lithgow in 2021 for God's sake, not Calcutta in the 1800s," an exasperated resident said.
"Surely there's an engineering solution to this but members of my family and their neighbours have been complaining about this for at least 50 years to my knowledge with nothing being done."
He said in some parts there is temporary reprieve when workmen lift sewer manhole covers to relieve pressure "but this only shifts the pollution from the residence to the street". They then provide disinfectant.
Affected residents are forced to take extreme measures that should not be necessary in any civilised society.
"Probably there's a lot of cost involved in fixing the problem but that's no comfort to residents with their bucket brigade," he said.
"This is quite obviously a serious health problem and government agencies need to step up."
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