Francesca Villette
TWO communal toilets shared by 30 families in Klaarstroom, which had not worked for the last two years, according to residents, were fixed yesterday and should be in a working condition today, authorities said.
Following a story in yesterday’s Cape Times describing how residents had to use the bush and nearby streams as a toilet, municipal manager Heinrich Mettler visited the area and ensured that the two toilets were repaired by contractors.
One toilet had been in operation for five years and the other for three, Mettler said.
Klaarstroom is a small town in the Western Cape between Prince Albert – the gateway to the Karoo – and De Rust, about 450km north-east of Cape Town. Residents live in iron shacks, with no lighting and one tap for the community.
The national Department of Water and Sanitation’s community development officer, Jonginkosi Kwetana, contacted the Cape Times yesterday and said he would visit the area soon to evaluate the situation.
Some residents are seasonal farmworkers, some work on nearby sheep and ostrich farms, while others were evicted by farm owners and had nowhere to go.
Residents told the Cape Times the toilets had been out of order for two years.
Katrina Prins, 33, said as a woman she felt she had been stripped of her dignity by being forced to use the bush as a toilet. When the Cape Times visited the area, children were running across the road after having used a bush opposite the settlement as a toilet.
Prince Albert mayor Goliath Lottering said the residents were staying on the land illegally and the Little Karoo was growing so rapidly it was putting a strain on the infrastructure.
He denied that the municipality had neglected the settlement and said the toilets had been repaired about a month ago, and that residents had vandalised the toilets.
“Families are growing and farmworkers who have been evicted and have nowhere to go are settling on land illegally. We do not have the money to provide more toilets for the people,” Lottering said.
Three areas make up the Prince Albert Municipality: Leeu-Gamka, Prince Albert and Klaarstroom.
New pipes were installed yesterday and water tanks were connected to them to make the toilets work.
Mettler said the municipality had received complaints a few weeks ago that the toilets were broken, but they had not acted until yesterday.
The municipality was also planning to give each family a key to a toilet, because previously they had been open to vandals and anyone who passed the town to use. Mettler said he had found all sorts of foreign objects inside the pipes. The pipes were also no longer connected to the ground.
Local Government, Environmental Affairs and Development Planning MEC Anton Bredell said he would liaise with the local community development worker to educate the community about how to maintain the toilets. “It is always problematic when you have more than five families using one toilet. Children might flush things down and adults might not know how to maintain it. We need to teach the people how to look after the toilets,” Bredell said.
Lottering previously said that in 2012, people who had lived in the settlement were moved into low-cost houses. At the time, the houses were enough to cater for all who lived in Klaarstroom.
The people who currently live in the shacks were evicted from nearby farms and had moved in illegally when the others moved out.