NEWS: Blip in Bay’s toilet project
Container plan raises fears on housing
MAYOR Athol Trollip vowed to eradicate the bucket sanitation system by the end of the year, but the project has hit a snag as some residents in Nelson Mandela Bay’s informal settlements are refusing to buy into it.
They fear that accepting the container ablution facilities means they would either be removed from the housing list, or they would be pushed to the bottom of the list.
A report by infrastructure, engineering and energy executive director Walter Shaidi said that out of the 18 wards that still had to be supplied with the containers, only five had indicated that they were ready.
The number of residents using the bucket system has decreased from 36 000 in 2005 to more than 13 000 last month.
“The main issue from wards who are not ready, or those who are partially ready, is that they are worried that perhaps this interim solution we are giving them is a sign that they are not going to get a house, or the house is going to come after a very long time,” Shaidi said.
“The communities have indicated to our teams that if they have to buy into this solution, we must bring human settlements [officials] to them and have them confirm that the interim solution will not move them to the back of the queue.
“This happened in Ward 18 when councillor [Nqaba] Bhanga went there.
“The community was up in arms, but all of a sudden made a flip when human settlements [department] confirmed.”
He said the concerns had been raised with Trollip, who recommended the human settlements department join the programme as a partner.
So far, 27 male and female ablution containers had been set up and 18 of them would be sent to other communities by the end of next week.
The containers will see 1 350 buckets eradicated. “If we are going to eradicate the rest of the buckets, it means we have five months of a very intense programme clearing all of them,” Shaidi said.
“This is a high-labour programme and five months to eradicate all those buckets is not a walk in the park.
“We will have to . . . actually tuck in and do it.”
At last week’s portfolio committee meeting, political head Annette Lovemore said it was a major concern.
“The concerns can be solved through inter-directorate cooperation from human settlements and electricity and energy,” she said.
“In area G West and in Chris Hani, the response there was that they want electricity; people told us that they don’t want communal toilets, they want electricity.
“People are calling for us to use the money set aside for bucket toilet eradication on electricity.
“Hopefully we can do both – provide electricity and dignified sanitation – but it is going to rely on inter-directorate cooperation going forward.”
Ward 31 councillor Luyolo Nombola said he was concerned that areas that used pit toilets were not included in the programme.
“I am very jealous when I see that there has been public participation in other wards when in Missionvale there is an area that uses pit toilets but nothing has been done to inform them of what other options there are,” Nombola said.