By Danilo Gladow
15 months ago, the garden pipits from the Georgina eV allotment garden association in Neukölln applied for a connection to the Berlin sewage network and have already collected 105,000 euros – but nothing has happened so far.
Cozy, idyllic, green. The allotment garden of the Georgina association on Kiefholzstraße is an oasis in the middle of the city – there would not be a sewage problem there. In January 2022, the association applied for a connection to the sewage disposal network of Berliner Wasserbetriebe – to this day, however, the dirty water still has to be sucked off, which is a laborious process.
“This is very annoying! We’ve all already paid here and nothing happened,” says pensioner Andreas Wiesener (64). Photo: Michael Körner
Have the allotment gardeners been forgotten? “There were delays of several months because the allotment garden had to prove that it had the right to conduct a property over which the canal was to be routed,” the company said.
“We leased the property, there was nothing to prove,” replies the garden manager. And further: “In autumn 2022 we were informed that the application had been lost.” The responsible clerk was then no longer available. “In March 2023, we sent the application again on request – it was then processed quickly.”
Gardener Tina Werner (28): “We are all in the starting blocks, the connections are already there and yet we still have to be vacuumed.” Photo: Michael Körner
In April, according to Wasserbetriebe, “the construction company we commissioned had to apply to the traffic control authority of the Senate Department for Mobility and Traffic for a traffic law order.” This order has been in place since August of this year.
Four more months of processing time, during which the construction company accepted other orders. “Since the press column is now scheduled on another construction site and then has three weeks’ vacation in order to then continue with two other jobs for pipe pressing, we can probably only be with you from week 42,” the company informed the gardeners.
After all: In October, the line should finally be laid – but then the gardening season will already be over.