Johannesburg - When the storms come, Christina Chauke picks up her baby and runs for their lives. In the 13 years she has lived in “hell”, she has seen too many of her neighbours lose everything – even their lives.
Today, it is not raining, but it is very hot. And then there are the rats. Big as cats, they feed on her baby, Dion. That is why mother and son are lying uncomfortably on a blanket placed upon the hard ground outside their shack, trying to sleep.
The shack is perched dangerously on the crumbling banks of the poisoned Jukskei River in Stjwetla in Alexandra. “When it rains, you feel scared your home will be washed away,” says Chauke. “The water comes into your house in the storms and it stinks for days. The rats come inside the house to escape the rising water.”
A putrid stream of poisonous, blackened water from the shacks cramped above hers, flows near her feet. The stench is unbearable. Like everyone else in Stjwetla, she uses the river as a toilet and a dustbin. What else can she do, she shrugs. “There are few toilets, no water, no electricity and no dustbins here. No one cares about us. It is hell here,” she cries.
Here in Stjwetla, more extreme weather means more disaster for a community already teetering on the brink. The City of Johannesburg believes there is a “substantial risk that Johannesburg will experience an increase in annual rainfall characterised by a higher frequency of storm events and a longer rainy season”.
For Kim Keiser, who has devoted her life to healing the Jukskei, that Stjwetla still exists – and that the Jukskei is still so tainted – is a source of constant frustration.
When she rehabilitated parts of the river more than 10 years ago, E coli levels fell from 22 million parts per 100ml to 240 000 parts per 100ml within two months. Funding dried up, but she still nurtures dreams of healing the blighted river.
There, hundreds of urban and climate change leaders will meet to discuss city-driven climate actions and their impact.
“All it is is greenwash,” says Keiser, who shakes her head at the bleak view of Stjwetla. “They will never bring those delegates here, and these are the types of communities most at risk from climate change. This water can rise 4m in 20 minutes. The canalisation of the Jukskei means the water is travelling 60 times faster than it should.”
Alexandra-born Matshidiso Mfikoe, member of the mayoral committee for environment and infrastructure, claims the council is doing all it can.
“I don’t know how many times we have moved people and they have come back. It is risky – with climate change, the rivers become the biggest problem because a lot of water overflows. That place, we’re not supposed to have people living there. They must allow us to move them,” she says.
Work is being done to clean the river, Mfikoe insists. “There are a group of women who were given funding through the Adopt-a-River project to clean up the Jukskei. Sometimes they clean it and you see the difference… you can see the efforts.”
Today, there is not a worker in sight, and the river is murky and swollen with waste.
“It’s a joke,” says Keiser. “People here are still living in abject poverty and filth, their own sewage and garbage. Alexandra produces a million kilograms of waste every day – probably a third of that is going into this river. It’s a disgrace. How can they (the city council) explain themselves? But you will see, they will use big words at this conference next week, but will we see any change at Stjwetla?” - Saturday Star