{"id":229819,"date":"2022-06-27T11:06:13","date_gmt":"2022-06-27T09:06:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.groundup.org.za\/article\/only-ten-toilets-work-in-cape-town-settlement-with-over-1000-shacks\/"},"modified":"2022-06-27T11:06:13","modified_gmt":"2022-06-27T09:06:13","slug":"broken-toilets-are-a-big-problem-across-cape-towns-townships","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/broken-toilets-are-a-big-problem-across-cape-towns-townships\/","title":{"rendered":"Broken toilets are a big problem across Cape Town\u2019s townships"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"article_body\">\n<p><a class=\"bigger-image\" href=\"https:\/\/www.groundup.org.za\/media\/uploads\/images\/photographers\/Nombulelo%20Damba\/woman_sweeping_sewage_at_harry_gwala_in_philippi.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt src=\"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/broken-toilets-are-a-big-problem-across-cape-towns-townships.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"caption\">Mavis Saunders from Harry Gwala informal settlement in Philippi, Cape Town rakes puddles of foul smelling sewage water from outside her door. Her shack is near a broken pipe that has been overflowing for nearly nine months. Photos: Nombulelo Damba-Hendrik<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<p class=\"intro\">The toilet situation in some informal settlements in Cape Town is unbearable. We visited a few places to hear residents\u2019 concerns.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p class=\"intro\">The City of Cape Town generally provides two types of communal toilets to informal settlements: portable chemical ones and flush toilets in concrete enclosures.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p class=\"intro\">The City says it shares residents\u2019 preference for full flush toilets, but it is not always possible to install these for various reasons, including a high water table.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Every morning Mavis Saunders from Harry Gwala informal settlement in Philippi, Cape Town wakes up to puddles of foul-smelling sewage water outside her door. Her shack is near a broken pipe that has been overflowing for nearly nine months.<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt class=\"leave\" height=\"1\" id=\"gu_counter\" src=\"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/broken-toilets-are-a-big-problem-across-cape-towns-townships.gif\" width=\"1\"><\/p>\n<p>Saunders has been living in the area since 1996. She shares a four-room shack with four children. She says the overflow is caused by blocked toilets in the settlements.<\/p>\n<p>Saunders says City officials have visited the area several times but leave without fixing the toilets. When residents question the officials, they are told it\u2019s a different department\u2019s duty, she says.<\/p>\n<p>Community leader Nosakhele Zenzile says there are more than 1,000 shacks in Harry Gwala. The City installed 120 flushed toilets but only ten currently work. \u201cI know the number because we counted them a few days ago,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe only thing the City\u2019s solid waste and sanitation departments are doing is pointing fingers at each other on who should fix the toilets,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n<p>City official Lisle Brown told GroundUp that they are investigating the issue.<\/p>\n<p>Across the city\u2019s informal settlements there are generally two types of communal toilets that the municipality provides: portable chemical ones \u2014 often called by their brand name \u201cMshengu\u201d toilets \u2014 and flush toilets in concrete enclosures. The latter are generally better, if they don\u2019t get clogged up.<\/p>\n<h2>Toilets blocked in Khayelitsha<\/h2>\n<p>Bonga Zolisa of the Social Justice Coalition said blocked toilets have become a big problem in Cape Town settlements.<\/p>\n<p>At BM informal settlement in Khayelitsha, residents say 130 toilets in the area are either blocked or vandalised. Many people now relieve themselves in buckets inside their shacks and then throw the waste on the open field next to the N2.<\/p>\n<p>Resident Pumeza Naka, who lives in a one-room shack with her daughter, said she tries to relieve herself while at work but uses a bucket when at home.<\/p>\n<p>At Qaduqadu informal settlement, on average about ten families share one portable chemical toilet each and these are emptied three days a week.<\/p>\n<p>Ward 89 Councillor Thando Mpimpi oversees both BM and Qaduqadu. He acknowledged that most of the toilets in BM Section have not been working for two years. \u201cSome toilets were not properly installed. People stopped using them in fear that they might fall while they are inside,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Mayco Member for Water and Sanitation Zahid Badroodien said the City is fixing toilets in need of repairs in BM informal settlement. He said damaged toilets would be replaced in the next financial year.<\/p>\n<p>Regarding Qaduqadu, Badroodien said there are approximately 390 chemical toilets in the area for approximately ten households per toilet.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe City shares residents\u2019 preference for full flush toilets. These are cheaper to install and maintain, but it is not always possible to install flush toilets for various reasons, including a high water table,\u201d said Badroodien.<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"bigger-image\" href=\"https:\/\/www.groundup.org.za\/media\/uploads\/images\/photographers\/Nombulelo%20Damba\/toilets_at_harry_gwala_settlement.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt src=\"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/broken-toilets-are-a-big-problem-across-cape-towns-townships-1.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div id=\"article_copyright\">\n<p>\u00a9 2022 GroundUp. This article is licensed under a <a href=\"http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nd\/4.0\/\" rel=\"license\">Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>You may republish this article, so long as you credit the authors and GroundUp, and do not change the text. Please include a link back to the original article.<\/p>\n<p>We put an invisible pixel in the article so that we can count traffic to republishers. All analytics tools are solely on our servers. We do not give our logs to any third party. Logs are deleted after two weeks. We do not use any IP address identifying information except to count regional traffic. We are solely interested in counting hits, <b>not tracking<\/b> users. If you republish, please do not delete the invisible pixel.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/broken-toilets-are-a-big-problem-across-cape-towns-townships.jpg\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.groundup.org.za\/\">Source: GroundUp<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Mavis Saunders from Harry Gwala informal settlement in Philippi, Cape Town rakes puddles of foul smelling sewage water from outside her door. Her shack is near a broken pipe that has been overflowing for nearly nine months. Photos: Nombulelo Damba-Hendrik The toilet situation in some informal settlements in Cape Town is unbearable. We visited a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":229820,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[9928],"tags":[28001],"class_list":{"0":"post-229819","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-groundup","8":"tag-groundup","9":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/broken-toilets-are-a-big-problem-across-cape-towns-townships.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229819","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=229819"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229819\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/229820"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=229819"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=229819"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=229819"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}