When we were children, we didn\u2019t pay much attention to the amenities in our homes such as having two bathrooms with a bath, shower and flushing toilets. We just assumed that everyone had a bathroom. It is something, as adults, we take for granted until we experience water restrictions or water outages and are not able to run a bath and flush a toilet. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
For many underprivileged families living in informal settlements around Cape Town, a normal routine is using a bucket to relieve themselves or to use a broken toilet that does not flush\u2026 shared between 10 families. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
There is no convenience of walking from the safety of your bedroom, down a passage to a clean and functional bathroom. For many living in townships, using a toilet at night can be risky as it requires taking a walk in the dark to a toilet a distance away and the chances of finding a workable toilet can be futile.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For the community of Overcome Heights informal settlement, the plea for functional toilets that have been broken and clogged for years has fallen on deaf ears.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I cannot count how often I\u2019ve visited Overcome Heights, how many calls and pleas of help from residents I\u2019ve received through the years. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Diligently, I would walk the township\u2019s dusty streets with concerned and weary residents who raise their concerns of non-working broken toilets, sewage spills and overflowing rubbish which causes massive rats to invade their structures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Last year December, the residents pleaded \u201cAll we want is working toilets\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At the time, I raised the issue with the City of Cape Town who vowed to repair toilets. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, the toilets they aimed to fix were a field away from residents and not the toilets in question.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At the time, the City claimed that \u201cmaintenance and operational teams responded to service requests for the area as received, which includes the fixing of toilet doors.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The City did fix the toilets situated a distance away, however, the broken toilets of more than a year ago, allocated to the residents who complained had still not been repaired.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As a journalist, I\u2019ve always felt highlighting issues which the underprivileged faced was a way to somehow bring about change. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Even if that was a small change, something that we may think is trivial but makes a big difference in someone else\u2019s life. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I\u2019ve once again raised the issue of broken toilets with the City. I pointed out that their claim to \u201crespond to service requests as received\u201d is simply false as they were made aware of dozens of families suffering and being forced to use buckets to relieve themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It genuinely pains me to see the poverty and suffering in the communities I frequent, to see children growing up thinking it is normal to use buckets to relieve themselves. What pains me even more, is when the issues I have highlighted and addressed with authorities are simply ignored or swept aside with excuses. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Responding to my statement that the City\u2019s claim to the People\u2019s Post<\/span> last year of \u201cmaintenance teams responding to service requests as received\u201d are false, Mayco member for water and sanitation Zahid Badroodien commented: \u201cThe toilets you are referring to have been severely vandalised by the community. The doors have been kicked in, toilets filled with rubble and cisterns stolen. These toilets are now unfortunately beyond repair and have therefore been condemned. They will have to be removed from where they are located.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n He further added that the sewer line that services the full flush toilets (FFTs) is misused, with construction material and other foreign objects being dumped into the network.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIn order to replace these toilets, the sewer line also has to be cleared. It is difficult to do this as the manholes have been built over and buried almost 500mm deep, making this entire replacement process a difficult and lengthy one. As a result, the design report for the replacement of the toilets has required additional time to prepare.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Badroodien added while the flush toilets were not operational, the City provided chemical and portable toilets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cPlease note that the community is serviced by chemical and portable flush toilets. This means that there is currently access to sanitation services while the full flush toilets have been taken out of use.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" When we were children, we didn\u2019t pay much attention to the amenities in our homes such as having two bathrooms with a bath, shower and flushing toilets. We just assumed that everyone had a bathroom. It is something, as adults, we take for granted unt<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":43900,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_yoast_wpseo_linkdex":"","_yoast_wpseo_content_score":"","_yoast_wpseo_inclusive_language_score":"","_yoast_wpseo_is_cornerstone":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_yoast_wpseo_opengraph-title":"","_yoast_wpseo_opengraph-description":"","_yoast_wpseo_opengraph-image":"","_yoast_wpseo_opengraph-image-id":"","_yoast_wpseo_twitter-title":"","_yoast_wpseo_twitter-description":"","_yoast_wpseo_twitter-image":"","_yoast_wpseo_twitter-image-id":"","newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","_crsspst_to_novanewscoza":false,"_crsspst_to_novanewscozabloemnewsexpress":false,"_crsspst_to_novanewscozacityvision":false,"_crsspst_to_novanewscozadistrictmailhelderberg":false,"_crsspst_to_novanewscozaeikestadnuus":false,"_crsspst_to_novanewscozahermanustimes":false,"_crsspst_to_novanewscozakomani-karoo":false,"_crsspst_to_novanewscozakougaexpress":false,"_crsspst_to_novanewscozamthathaexpress":false,"_crsspst_to_novanewscozanoordkaapbulletin":false,"_crsspst_to_novanewscozapaarlpost":false,"_crsspst_to_novanewscozapeexpress":false,"_crsspst_to_novanewscozaswartlandgazette":false,"_crsspst_to_novanewscozatygerburger":false,"_crsspst_to_novanewscozaudexpress":false,"_crsspst_to_novanewscozavistanews":false,"_crsspst_to_novanewscozavrystaatkroon":false,"_crsspst_to_novanewscozaweskusnuus":false,"_crsspst_to_novanewscozaweslander":false,"_crsspst_to_novanewscozaworcesterstandard":false,"_EventAllDay":"","_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":"","_EventShowMapLink":"","_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":"","_EventVenueID":"","_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":"","_VenueShowMapLink":"","_application":"","_batch_id":"","_company_name":"","_company_tagline":"","_company_twitter":"","_company_video":"","_company_website":"","_custom_id":"e93d7880-d7ed-4eb3-b9fa-62ac9d977d1d","_EventDuration":"","_EventOrigin":"","_EventTimezoneAbbr":"","_featured":"","_filled":"","_job_expires":"","_job_location":"","_media_credit":"","_media_credit_url":"","_menu_item_menu_item_parent":"","_menu_item_object":"","_menu_item_object_id":"","_menu_item_target":"","_menu_item_type":"","_menu_item_url":"","_menu_item_xfn":"","_navis_media_can_distribute":"","_navis_media_credit_org":"","_OrganizerOrigin":"","_provider":"","_pum_built_in":"","_pum_default_theme":"","_pum_form_conversion_count":"","_remote_id":"","_remote_name":"","_remote_position":"","_report_frequency":"","_report_reference_dates":"","_send_attempts":"","_site_id":"","_sitemap_exclude":"","_sitemap_frequency":"","_sitemap_priority":"","_source_url":"","_subscription_period":"","_subscription_period_interval":"","_subscription_price":"","_tec_slr_enabled":"","_tec_slr_layout":"","_template_type":"","_ticket_end_date":"","_ticket_start_date":"","_tribe_aggregator_allow_multiple_organizers":"","_tribe_aggregator_content_type":"","_tribe_aggregator_file":"","_tribe_aggregator_finalized":"","_tribe_aggregator_hash":"","_tribe_aggregator_import_id":"","_tribe_aggregator_import_name":"","_tribe_aggregator_interactive":"","_tribe_aggregator_origin":"","_tribe_aggregator_post_status":"","_tribe_aggregator_preview":"","_tribe_aggregator_source_name":"","_tribe_aggregator_type":"","_tribe_default_ticket_provider":"","_tribe_hide_attendees_list":"","_tribe_rsvp_for_event":"","_tribe_ticket_capacity":"","_tribe_ticket_header":"","_tribe_ticket_show_description":"","_tribe_ticket_show_not_going":"","_tribe_ticket_version":"","_type":"","_VenueOrigin":"","_wp_attachment_context":"","_wp_attachment_image_alt":"","_wp_font_face_file":"","_wp_old_date":"","_yoast_wpseo_estimated-reading-time-minutes":"","_yoast_wpseo_focuskeywords":"","_yoast_wpseo_focuskw_text_input":"","_yoast_wpseo_keywordsynonyms":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_block-catalog":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_job_listing_type":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_nova_retailer":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_publication":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_tribe_events_cat":"","_yoast_wpseo_videositemap-duration":"","_yoast_wpseo_videositemap-rating":"","_menu_item_classes":[],"_tribe_modified_fields":[],"_wp_attachment_backup_sizes":[],"_wp_suggested_privacy_policy_content":[],"_yoast_post_redirect_info":[],"_yoast_wpseo_video_meta":[],"activation_date":"","archive_insertion_is_repeating":"","archive_insertion_posts_count":"","article_feature_media":"","article_feature_type":"","article_main_image_caption":"","article_media_icon":"","article_template":"","author_byline":"Natasha Bezuidenhout","background_color":"","block_editor":"","byline":"","cmplz_hide_cookiebanner":"","competition_end_date":"","contact_advertise_email":"","contact_advertise_phone":"","contact_editorial_email":"","contact_general_email":"","contact_general_phone":"","contact_office_hours":"","contact_physical_address":"","enabled":"","featured_image_custom_caption":"","featured_video_url":"","fields":"","font_body":"","font_header":"","frequency":"","headline":"","hide_border":"","icon":"","is_wp_suggestion":"","issuu_download_url":"","issuu_embed_url":"","language_version_url":"","large_border":"","name":"","nm_contact_name":"","nm_contact_number":"","nm_date_lost":"","no_overlay_background":"","node-url":"","obituary_born_date":"","obituary_died_date":"","obituary_memoriam_text":"","origin":"","overlay_color":"","overlay_opacity":"","overlay_size":"","placement":"","plural_label":"","post_author":"","post_id":"","post_language":"en","secret-key":"","sponsored_utm_campaign":"","sponsored_utm_content":"","sponsored_utm_medium":"","sponsored_utm_source":"","sponsored_utm_term":"","start_date":"","utm_suppression":"","video_embed_url":"","wp_pattern_sync_status":"","data_version":[],"enclosure":[],"pongrass_image":[],"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_newspack_byline_active":false,"_newspack_byline":"","newspack_content_restriction_is_exempt":false,"scaip_prevent_shortcode_addition":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"publication":[],"class_list":["post-44195","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n