Pit toilets have not been eradicated in eMbalenhle despite politicians’ remarks over the years that the bucket system no longer exists.
Residents in Ext Eight are still subjected to pit toilets which some believe are unsafe.
They claim the municipality promised to convert their pit toilets to waterborne toilets 10 years ago, but it never happened.
The residents said the toilets are dangerous and a health risk.
“Our municipality doesn’t care about us. These toilets are not good for us and our children, and Govan Mbeki Municipality does not maintain them.”
The toilets are overflowing because the municipality neglected to send its ‘honey sucker’ to collect the waste.
“It has been almost a year since they last came to drain the toilets. Think about the smell now that it is so hot in the summer.
“We are living in an unhealthy environment. We cannot eat because of the flies and the stench in our houses,” said a resident.
When these residents were relocated from the Crossroads informal settlement to Ext Eight stands 15 years ago, they hoped their lives would change, but some insist they are now worse off.
They claim the municipality gave them the equipment (toilet conversion kits) to hold on to until municipal workers came to convert the toilets.
“After receiving our toilet conversion kits, the municipality instructed us to close up our pits so they could do the conversion.
“We followed the instructions and began to fill the pits with stones and sand. But then GMM returned and told us to reopen those pits.
“They said they would tell us when the project will resume,” said another resident.
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The community wants to know what happened to the money allocated for the conversion of the toilets.
“There was a budget for the work. What happened to it?
“It has been 10 years since they stopped the project and we still have no explanation.”
Donald Green, the acting manager of communication at the municipality said they are aware of the areas still using VIP toilets in Ext Eight.
Green said there was a project for sewer reticulation installation in 2009. They discovered that those household are at the extreme lower areas and sewer lines could not be installed as the sewage will not flow.
“The project was completed in the then financial year and the municipality is maintaining those toilets on a monthly basis to ensure that they are usable.
“These residents who are using the VIP toilets were engaged for relocation in 2009 by the municipality’s human settlement section and from the information received at the projects management unit, is that they refused to be relocated,” said Green.
