About 150 toilets have been lying on a building site near an informal settlement in Newcastle, KwaZulu-Natal, since January, after a project to install them was suddenly halted.
Image: Sibusiso Mdlalose, GroundUp
The project, launched in November 2018, was to replace pit toilets residents of F Section have used since 2002, when the settlement was established.
But flush toilets have been provided for only 30 households to date, with 146 not installed.
Ward councillor Fikile Gama said the project had been halted because of financial problems in the municipality.
“Our municipality is experiencing big financial constraints. Only 30 toilets had been provided out of 176 households allocated for the toilet project, when the building material became short. But hopefully the project will be completed once the municipality has sorted financial problems, probably by next year,” said Gama.
Doctor Ngwenya, 50, who has been a resident of F Section for 17 years, is losing hope that the toilet project will ever be completed. He said that during a meeting with residents in March, Gama had failed to tell residents what had happened to the money budgeted for the toilets.
He also expressed concern about the drainage of the pit toilets by lorries. “The toilet drainage system in our area is also a big concern for us. It’s very unreliable, as it takes months before our toilets get drained. Sometimes it takes even three months before they are drained and the stench becomes unbearable, especially in this season of the year (summer),” complained Ngwenya.
Newcastle municipality spokesperson Dumisani Thabethe confirmed the municipality was in financial “crisis”, but promised that the toilet project in F Section was “in the pipeline” to be completed next year.
The municipality owes Eskom more than R200m.
This article was first published by GroundUp.
BY SIBUSISO MDLALOSE- TimesLIVE
Source: TMG Digital
