Band-aid on erupting boil

THIS week has seen protests break out not only in several suburbs in the city but also in other Northern Cape towns, most of them over raw sewage spillages.

Pupils at schools have been sent home due to overflowing sewage in the school yards, while streets and homes have also been flooded, with foul-smelling raw sewage pushing up into residents’ showers and kitchens.

The problem is not unique to Kimberley, where the municipality has blamed collapsed sewerage pipes, or the Northern Cape.

In fact a recent report found that 45% of municipalities in the country do not have the capacity to perform their sanitation functions.

The Department of Water and Sanitation’s Green Drop Report of 2013 indicated that only 60 out of 824 wastewater systems in the country received green drop status.

Given this figure, it is surprising that the department has chosen to ignore the problem and has not released a report since.

Raw sewage carries severe health risks, including hepatitis and cholera. With the warm weather fast approaching, children will be naturally drawn to play in water puddles but many of these are likely to be pools of sewage.

We are sitting on a time bomb unless something is done to tackle the problem. While the bucket system might have been eradicated in formal areas in the city, dignified sanitation is still lacking for far too many.

Just over 57 000 of the city’s roughly 62 000 households have flush toilets – it doesn’t help however if, when you flush the toilet, it all comes back up in your kitchen or backyard.

The failure by municipalities to deliver reliable sanitation services is largely due to poor leadership and inadequate budgets, skills and experience.

Most of the budget for sanitation is spent on salaries and wages, with little left over for repairs and maintenance.

In this financial year – from now until the end of June next year – only two sanitation projects have been budgeted for in Kimberley – the upgrading of the Lerato Park line and a new pump station for Carter’s Glen.

What is really needed, however, is a comprehensive plan to replace the entire collapsed sewerage network in the city.

Instead the municipality continues to attempt to “manage” the problem by pumping out blocked lines – essentially putting a band-aid on an erupting boil.