Shock and horror at Bruma Lake!!!!

I am going with a Daily Sun-type headline today. I think my story deserves it.

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I have always thought that being a toll road money collector must be the worst job in the world. How boring must it be to sit in alone in a tiny box and have no meaningful interaction with the drivers who hand over money and whizz off? There's not even anything to look at except dull highway and cars.

But there' s an even worse job right on my doorstop. It is being a Bruma Lake cleaner.

The water in the lake comes from the Jukskei river and by the time it reaches Bruma Lake, it is highly polluted with sewerage and trash. Bruma Lake is one part sewerage and two parts water, according to water readings obtained by Jukskei expert, Paul Fairall.

A close up of water in Bruma lake

A hotel facing the smelly lake, employs a lake cleaner to remove dead carcusses and litter from the lake. He peddles a boat around the lake and scoops out what he finds. Fellow cleaners employed by the other lake-facing hotel have found a dead baby before.

It gets worse:

The litter and animal bodies get thrown back into the river at the end of the lake because it is to "hazardous" for the municipality to collect the them, according to the hotel's General Manager.

So the lake cleaner removes the trash so that it is out the hotel guests' eyesight and then it gets thrown back in again, where the lake turns into river. And  so it gets washed away towards Alex.

The lake cleaner deals with dead animals, litter and water filled with sewerage and the hotel he works for has NOT provided him with protective clothing or innoculations.

The lake cleaner wished to stay anonymous. He told me "he had accepted his job privately but not publicly". His need to support his child "drives him to do it" because to date he has found no better employment.  When I asked if he had had Hepatitus B injections or a Tetnus shot he said no.

 I said nothing to the hotel's general manager when I left. I had to bite my tongue and fake a smile.

 I would like to find out if the hotel is in breach of the Occupational Health and Safety act then I will approach them.

Meanwhile a man, who is trying to support his family, is working, unprotected, with what his employer calls "too hazardous" for the municipality to pick up.