The bucket system will not be eradicated as long as informal housing persists in Cape Town, city officials say.
This comes in response to the ANC’s request that steps be taken to implement more acceptable systems in areas where buckets continue to be used to remove sewage.
The council’s portfolio committee on utility services heard on monday that until the backlog of around 400 000 houses had been dealt with, the water and sanitation department could not be expected to provide shack dwellers with a better sanitation system.
Utilities executive director Bulumko Msengana said the city was satisfied the bucket system was not being used in any formal housing areas.
“It is not possible to eliminate the bucket system in informal areas because of their nature… It cannot be achieved,” Msengana said.
He said the city could hope to improve the situation only once people were moved to areas that allowed for proper sanitation services.
Director for water services Sipho Mosai said sub-councils had been asked to monitor the maintenance service provided in informal areas where the bucket system was used.
ANC caucus leader Mbulelo Ncedana and chief whip Peter Gabriel brought a motion before the sub-councils in January that the council investigate the scale of the bucket system and the progress made towards meeting the target President Thabo Mbeki set in his State of the Nation address last year - that of eradicating the bucket system by the end of this year.
InternAfrica would like to point out the government are convinced there are only 1200 buckets in use in the WC
Ncedana told the Cape Argus on Monday he accepted it would be difficult to get rid of the bucket system in informal areas, but did not agree it would not be eradicated.
“That’s not the attitude we want. All informal settlements must be upgraded - that’s our responsibility as councillors.”
Ncedana said the council needed to identify land so people subjected to the bucket system could move to areas with better services.
“These people will not live in shacks for ever. As long as officials have a positive attitude and we use land efficiently and effectively, we cannot say we will never resolve the issue.” Cape Argus
The next day in an interview Rashid Khan regional manager of the department of water affairs and forestry said R44-million had been budgeted in the past and current financial years to eradicate the bucket system in the province’s formal housing areas.
Existing sewerage works would be able to cope easily with the relatively small number of conversions.
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