Cape Town - While the City of Cape Town’s solutions to the sanitation backlog are “not ideal”, they are the “very best anyone can provide in challenging circumstances”, says mayor Patricia de Lille.
The solutions include the provision of chemical toilets, container toilets or portable flush toilets, depending on the density of the informal settlement and ease of access for council staff needing to service the units.
De Lille said the city’s toilet problems were compounded by the legacy of apartheid spatial planning, the use of land in flood-prone areas and the concomitant risk to sewer systems.
“This state of affairs is not right and it is not fair, but it is what this government has to work with, said De Lille. As the city was bound by the constitution to provide access to basic services, it had a “duty to come up with innovative solutions… with every means at (its) disposal”.
Many of the city’s 233 informal settlements were located on unsuitable land, such as low-lying floodplains, and were characterised by high density and poverty.
“And when we are confronted with these informal settlements, we are faced with the challenge of providing services where our engineering reaches its limitations and the land topography does not allow us to install the level of services we want to,” she said.
It was not always possible to install water-borne sanitation, especially in flood-prone areas. Pipelines would sag or misalign, causing blockages and spills that would put the health of residents at risk.
The metro was the leading sanitation provider in the country, said Ernest Sonnenberg, mayoral committee for utility services.
In June last year, the city faced a toilet backlog of 26 450 toilets. However, the city is providing 23 000 portable flush toilets, 1 300 full flush toilets as well as container and chemical toilets, said Sonnenberg. The city had set a target of one toilet for every five households, or less, in informal settlements.
The city had also allocated a combined capital and operation budget of R520 million for water and sanitation in informal settlements for this financial year, he said.
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