The Sewerage & Water Board is again cleaning catch basins after work ground to a halt earlier this year, but it continues to lag behind its goal and still has no money for citywide repairs to damaged pipes that will continue backing up stormwater.
Neglect of the “minor drainage” system is especially apparent in Treme, where residents sounded off at an S&WB community meeting Tuesday. Catch basins in the neighborhood are filled with garbage, vegetation, construction debris and even cement, they said.
“The number one issue here is that our drains are completely stuck,” said Cheryl Austin, executive director of the Greater Treme Consortium, at the Treme Center. “The drains have not been cleaned out since before Katrina, and that’s what’s causing the flooding. The water can’t flow.”…