Low cost housing design leads to increased health risks

After a 17-year wait Thobeka Mzinyathi a 43 year old mother of three children, received a state-subsidised RDP house in 2004 thanks to Irish social entrepreneur Niall Mellon who founded the Niall Mellon Township Trust to provide homes for the poor.

Instead of celebrating being a home-owner in Hout Bay’s Imizamo Yethu township, she has been plagued with ongoing plumbing problems related to blocked sewers which cost her hundreds of rands to fix.

While the view from the township on the slopes of Table Mountain National Park across the suburban and upper class homes in the valley is superb, the air stinks.

Mzinyathi, who works as a domestic worker, says she “often” has to fork out R750 to get a private plumber to fix blocked pipes to avoid sewerage spilling across her back yard.

During a visit on Friday last week raw sewerage could be seen flowing out of a drain cover in her yard, flowing down the hill through other yards and into the street.

“My house is on the top and the sewerage flows to neighbours’ houses and they complain every time,” said Mzinyathi, adding that her neighbours had their own sewerage overflow to worry about.

She is one of several RDP homeowners in the township who related similar problems.

She said although city contractors did come to fix the problem, the sewage system would just block up again, forcing her to call private plumbers.

She said the city had told her the problem was permanent and “there is nothing they can do”.

The private plumber, she said, told her that all sewerage pipes in the township were not properly installed hence blockages would constantly recur.

Blockages were occasionally so severe that when she flushed the toilet sewerage rose up through the sink and bathtub plugholes and she’d have to scoop it out with a bucket.

Xolani Hesi, 31, a father of three children stayed in a shack downstream along Mkhonto Street said a continual flow of sewerage ran past his shack. He described the living condition in the township as “disgusting”.

“The raw sewerage water enters my bedroom and it’s like someone is defecating in there,” said Hesi.

He said he was particularly worried about the health of his 2-years old daughter.

But the problem is not confined to Imizamo Yethu. Recent research conducted by University of Stellenbosch Department of Health Sciences senior lecturer Dr Jo Barnes found out that 58% of toilets in RDP houses in Driftsands, Greenfield, Masipumelela and Tafelsig were non operational.

At present the design of these low-cost housing schemes contribute to an increased risk of communicable diseases, rather than an improvement,” stated the research.

Dr Jo Barnes said in an interview that sewerage running through the streets was “a serious health risk”. “We are very worried about the health of those people living in those RDP houses,” said Barnes, “what is worrying to us is that in the eyes of the authorities, their view is that those people have been helped. They have provided them with houses and now their concern is for people living in informal settlements.”

The Imizamo Yethu houses experiencing continual sewage problems is the Makhukhanye Peoples Housing Project (PHP) which saw 455 houses being built, said provincial Ministry of Human Settlements spokesperson Bruce Oom

He confirmed it was a Niall Mellon housing initiative – the first of many in the country which sees Irish volunteers engaging in a building blitz – and to date “no quality problems” relating to the construction of the houses had been reported.

The provision of sanitation, however, was a municipal function, said Oom.

He said the department was concerned that residents’ health “may be compromised”.

“It is important that the relevant local government authorities ensure that services are provided in a satisfactory manner that supports health,” he said.

Dr Justin O’Riain, an environmentalist serving on the Hout Bay ward forum, said the run-off from Imizamo Yethu, which included the Dontse Yakhe informal settlement, had polluted Hout Bay’s Disa River with e-coli bacteria that parts of the river were “lifeless”.

“About 300 metres from where the informal settlement run off comes out, there is no life there. High levels of nutrients and phosphorous has stimulated the growth of alien plant species which is choking the open water,” said O’Riain.

Alerts warning people not to swim at Hout Bay beach where the Disa River emerges are occasionally issued by the City.

Questions sent to the City of Cape Town on Monday remained unanswered by yesterday (subs: Tues) afternoon.

City media manager Kylie Hatton said the city needed more time to respond to queries as the “require some investigation”.


Source: westcapenews.com –Peter Luhanga, 2011-10-04