Signs of hope at Dalton Road site
Deputy Mayor Fawzia Peer recently returned to the site 18 months after her first visit to see what had improved.
DESPITE money being spent and tenders being awarded, there is still no access to running water or toilet facilities at the Dalton Road site near the harbour.
Deputy Mayor Fawzia Peer recently returned to the site 18 months after her first visit to see what had improved.
According to the director of the Denis Hurley Centre, Raymond Perrier, the centre has been helping the community for the last three years and it is a shockingly derelict area, although only 2.6km from City Hall.
“This is difficult for our clinic and crèche; it is even harder for the 600 people who live there. The makeshift plastic shacks of the homeless are still being burnt and bulldozed by municipal officials. The poor drainage means that when it rains the area turns to mud. The Umbilo Business Forum, who have been great partners, have a plan to regenerate the area. Let’s hope the municipality is listening,” said Perrier.
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According to Perrier, the area has a thriving trade in traditional animal skins and a taxi park, there are 400 people living in shacks built inside the old Beer Hall and up to 200 living in the mud outside.
The latter group include many drug users who were moved here by the municipality as part of a ‘clean up’ of Albert Park a few years ago.
“There have been definite signs of progress in the project. Our clinic-in-a-container has been operating for 20 months and opens four days a week. This means we can provide regular, quality healthcare on site. TB-recovery programmes are much more effective when our nursing team is there regularly. The container next to our clinic lay empty for over a year but has finally been lent to us by the municipality so we can house our crèche. The 20 children we are preparing for school would otherwise be running around in the mud or locked in their shacks. We are looking for funders to help keep the crèche going,” added Perrier.
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