Khayelitsha families have to use buckets as toilets again

Words: Vincent Lali / GroundUp

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Residents of YB section in Khayelitsha are using buckets as toilets and dumping waste into stormwater drains because a communal ablution facility is unusable.

They say the toilets are blocked, damaged and strewn with human waste, making it difficult to reach the toilet bowls and urinals.

Mpumelelo Kanana, a janitor hired by the City, said the toilets were last cleaned by janitors in June. He said he and another resident were hired in October, but they can only clean outside the toilets because the inside is too filthy.

Kanana said City plumbers cleaned the floor several weeks ago but left the toilet bowls blocked and overflowing. He said the plumbers told him that a blocked pipe was preventing waste from flowing into the sewer line.

The City’s Mayoral Committee Member for Water and Sanitation, Zahid Badroodien, said the block had been vandalised. The toilets had no doors or cisterns, and only the toilet bowl remained.

He said City teams clean the site when a service notification is received and return when another is logged.

Badroodien said YB section has 338 households and 51 full-flush toilets. Ten of these are in the vandalised block. There is also one chemical toilet.

Nikiwe Wana, who lives near the toilets, said she was afraid to use them because they had no doors or locks and were dirty. She sometimes used a bucket or went to her sister’s home nearby.

Wana said residents also dump buckets of human waste and dirty water from washing outside the toilets. This has created a smelly pool of stagnant water next to the toilets, where uncollected rubbish also lies.

Wana said children often play soccer next to the pool. When the ball lands in it, they fetch it with their bare hands. ‘My fear is that the dirt will make the kids sick,’ she said.

She said the toilets used to be well maintained, with sinks, lights, showers and washing lines. Residents also brought their own soap and disinfectants to help clean them. Conditions deteriorated after the City removed security guards and the previous cleaners’ contracts expired, Wana said.

Badroodien said the guards had been removed because the block had already been completely vandalised and there was no infrastructure left to safeguard.

Picture: Vincent Lali / GroundUp

He confirmed that the previous janitors’ 18-month contracts had ended. The cleaners are employed through the City’s Expanded Public Works Programme.

In August, the City told GroundUp that it had restructured the janitorial project, but that the start of the new project had been delayed.

Badroodien said delays in obtaining approval for the new project’s registration had held up recruitment. The process resumed once the project’s paperwork was approved and registered, he said.

Badroodien said the City was investigating fixing the block and in the meantime was considering chemical toilets as a temporary measure, subject to budget availability.

Meanwhile, he said, residents should not use the toilets and should ‘make use of the available full-flush toilets within the informal settlement.’

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Picture: Vincent Lali / GroundUp

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