Khayelitsha residents’ great toilet trek

Cape Town 150520. Bongiwe Nelani from TR section in Khayelitsha demonstrates how the hand wash bottle works. The Department of Water and Sanitation is celebrating the annual Sanitation and Hygiene month in May. Picture Cindy waxa.Reporter Siya/Argus

Cape Town 150520. Bongiwe Nelani from TR section in Khayelitsha demonstrates how the hand wash bottle works. The Department of Water and Sanitation is celebrating the annual Sanitation and Hygiene month in May. Picture Cindy waxa.Reporter Siya/Argus

Published May 21, 2015

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Cape Town - Imagine having to walk 2km in the dead of night in icy, wet winter weather to the closest flushing toilet. That’s what some residents of TR Section in Khayelitsha have to endure, even after pilot ablution facilities were installed in the area.

As part of the Department of Water and Sanitation’s celebration of Sanitation and Hygiene Month, the toilet facilities will be launched by Minister Nomvula Mokonyane on Friday.

Resident Bongiwe Nelani said: “What will one do when needing to use a toilet at night? The toilets are too far from where I live and people get robbed all the time in this area. It’s not safe.”

Nelani said the toilets were a good thing, but wouldn’t be able to accommodate the whole area. She added that communal toilets got blocked and damaged all the time and posed a danger to small children.

Another resident, Bongeka Duka, said she crossed the railway line to relieve herself and that, too, was dangerous. “There’s nothing else we can do. We have to cross the railway line because we don’t have toilets, and I will do the same again because these new toilets are far from my house.”

The City of Cape Town also took the opportunity to introduce a novel innovation to assist residents with washing their hands after they have completed their ablutions.

The city’s website says the bottle is known as the hand-wash squeeze bottle. It was invented by a school pupil and has made hand-washing easy and accessible. This solution, which requires only an empty two-litre plastic bottle, a thin plastic pipe and a few drops of liquid soap and water, has become an integral part of the Environmental Health Department’s education and awareness campaigns on the importance of hand-washing.

Resident Siyavuya Piliso said: “There were never taps in the area while I was growing up. The communal taps are far from most of us, and this new squeeze-bottle means we’ll never get taps.”

Brett Herron, acting mayco member for utility services, said standpipes would be installed in the next financial year. “Water and Sanitation officials are engaging with the ward councillor and will shortly be asking the community to identify where the standpipes should be installed.”

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Cape Argus

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