Families left living in a sewage swamp
WHILE residents in almost all Buffalo City Metro townships are living in better conditions, about 60 families living in Beacon Bay’s Nompumelelo township are forced to share two toilets and one communal tap surrounded by raw sewage.
In 2013, the shack dwellers received two toilets and the communal tap to share among themselves, but the toilets have since been vandalised and blocked causing raw sewage to flow down a street used daily by residents.
People from outside the area have also used the site where the tap is situated to dump their rubbish.
Sindiswa Jwili, who has been living in the area since 2012, said the conditions they lived under had become unbearable.
“We’ve been living without a decent water supply for months now because this tap is surrounded by sewage.
“After the sewerage pipe got blocked last year, it was left unattended, and now there’s dirty water all around it. Kids play here and we pass here daily because there’s just no way to avoid it.”
She said the raw sewage flows into their homes.
Residents are forced to put up with the stench and health hazard, as their efforts for intervention have been in vain. Infections, diseases and sores are rife among residents, especially children.
The two toilets are no longer usable as they are blocked and filthy.
A constant leak from these leaves the pathway permanently damp, and the residents say it gets worse when it rains.
“We’ve reported this several times to our ward councillor already but all we get are empty promises,” Jwili said. Wilfred Tola, one of the small business owners who sells home-cooked meals from a shack in the area, said his business was badly affected.
“These businesses are our livelihood, but we are losing customers because it’s unhygienic to eat here. Flies, mosquitos and the smell drives customers away. No one wants to eat food in an area that smells.”
Another resident, Bongiwe Mbembeta, whose yard is full of dirty water from the street said she had been to BCM countless times already, “but they keep referring us to the councillor who keeps promising to take care of this for us”.
“My children are small and I can’t always keep guard. When I’m not looking, my youngest one crawls to the dirty water.”
BCM spokesman Sibusiso Cindi said the ward’s councillor had alerted the municipality of the situation in the area.
“My understanding is that we have provided this area at Nompumelelo with ablution [facilities] as well as caretakers.
“I am not sure what has since happened, but the councillor has reported to us that the ablutions are close to being full and we are therefore to dispatch our team to empty them as a matter of urgency.”
Ward councillor Makhaya Bopi could not be reached for comment. — dispatch.co.za