Residents at informal settlement bemoan state of toilets

FOR the last five months, residents of an informal settlement in Crow Place in Kenville have had to deal with poorly equipped and often times, sanitation chambers that are unusable. Chairperson of the Siyathutuka Informal Settlement, Innocent Mathaba, said residents have been forced to use bushes along the river and other vacant pieces of land to relieve themselves.

The settlement’s recently installed Communal Ablution Blocks or CABs (sanitation chambers) which are equipped with toilets and showers have not been used for the past five months. Of concern was the men’s sanitation chamber which has not been used due to its dilapidated state.

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When Northglen News visited the settlement last week, the men’s communal sanitation chamber, we found the doors to all three of the toilets had been broken down. What is more, the showers were also broken with only one water basin inside the chamber working.
Mathaba said the toilets were good-for-nothing and that the lack of toilet paper, had caused more chaos.

“The situation we have now is the men are forced to either use the bushes or the women’s toilets which is a problem for the dignity of the ladies. The chambers don’t have any toilet paper and as a consequence we are forced to use newspaper which blocks the pipes. This has caused a sewerage leak. Piles of the used newspaper pieces are placed outside the chamber because they were stuck in the pipes. We need the City to act,” he implored.

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He added the problem was particularly tough on the elderly and young children.

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