Good Samaritans came to Dipuo Madito’s rescue after the Herald published an article in November 2021 about a sewage issue in Arabelang Street in Top City that had bothered her for over a decade.
The issue was resolved, and Dipouo and the rest of the community lived in peace for over a year. On Saturday, 25 March, however, the sewage leak began again.
Dipuo fears that, like in the past, it will take many years before the problem is sorted out. In desperation, she has taken her frustrations to Facebook and hopes someone will help. “Before it was fixed, this sewage was an issue for over a decade. Our ward councillor had always known about it and tried numerous times to report it on our behalf. To date, no one from the municipality has come to assist us,” she lamented.
In a previous interview, the 34-year-old explained to the Herald that people from the municipality had done inspections from time to time, but the issue persisted. The situation is particularly personal for Dipuo, who grew up witnessing her parents suffering from the same sewage issue.
“For years, my parents constantly reported the issue, but it was never addressed. My parents passed on without seeing it fixed,” she said. “They fix it today, and we are back to square one tomorrow.” Dipuo has a five-year-old who suffers from asthma, often worsened by their living conditions. “This is very bad. We cannot keep living like this,” she said.
According to her, her daughter went to the doctor last week and he discovered that she had a lung infection, suspected to have been caused by the sewage. “My daughter is constantly in and out of the hospital,” she said. Dipuo previously told the Herald that the situation would get so bad that she would take her daughter to her sister’s house every day after school for the rest of the afternoon to keep her from inhaling the foul smell. They would only come back home late at night to sleep.
“We do this to avoid the horrible smell. We cannot deal with this; one cannot get used to this,” she lamented. The Madito family has also had to use their neighbour’s toilet and washing line because their toilet would be completely clogged, and their yard full of sewage.
“It is impossible to hang the washing out to dry,” she said. Madito had also explained that the sewage was green and black, and all sorts of things came out of it. “We use strong cleaning detergents to try and neutralise the smell, but even that does not help,” she lamented.
“What else should we do? We are tired of having to cover ourselves up completely when we sleep.” Although the municipality has assisted Dipuo in the past, she is begging them to help resolve the issue. The Herald asked the municipality for comment but did not receive a response by printing time.
