Cape Town - More than 150 people in Khayelitsha are sharing one toilet, which Nolusindiso Khaka says she is forced to clean every day.
The public loo is located next to her house in AT informal settlement.
Nolusindiso says it’s the only toilet available to people in the informal settlement and she’s scared she’ll catch the Coronavirus.
“I was using water and vinegar to clean it. Now I have borrowed a 5 litre of bleach because I am worried I might get sick,” she says.
She actually lives on a plot next to AT and has her own toilet, which she says is also being used by people from the informal settlement.
“Other toilets were demolished since people got RDP houses. The people from the informal settlement have no other choice, but to come here.”
Relieve
Nolusindiso tried locking the toilet to prevent people from using it, but that turned out to be a bad idea.
“They relieve themselves outside the toilet and I had to clean that. Others kick the door open,” she says.
The informal settlement also only has one tap which residents have to share, and there is no electricity.
When the queue is long, they go to Nolusindo’s tap, which is outside her toilet.
Resident Nomakabongwe Ngcukana says the least people can do is buy cleaning materials.
“All these years she has kept the toilet clean by herself, it is unfair what we are doing to her. A R2 from each house can assist to buy disinfectants and gloves for her.”
But Nolusindiso says she wants to move: “I have approached every office you can think of asking to be moved from here, but that all fell on deaf ears.”
Solution
Xanthea Limberg, the City’s Mayco Member for Water and Waste, said the area is too dense to install full flush toilets.
She says residents were offered portable loos, which some of them declined.
“In light of the previous stance taken by the community regarding the acceptance of toilets, the City will again engage with the residents to find a solution to the provision of additional toilets,” Limberg told the Daily Voice.