France Ext residents still waiting for basic toilets after 20 years

Some residents of France Extension in Pietermaritzburg say that more than 20 years after RDP housing was built in this area near Edendale, they still have to use bucket toilets.

While many households in the area now have portable toilets in their yards, people say it’s little better than the 10 litre plastic buckets the Umsunduzi municipality supplied households with initially.

They say there are places where three or more households share a portable toilet – which is emptied once a week by municipal workers.

One of the first residents of the France area, Bongani Zuke says the bucket toilets are unhygienic and undignified.

“As a female, if you go to the toilet you find a neighbour, a male neighbour using the toilet, it’s not good for that person. Even the communicable disease, spreads easily if three or four families are using the same toilet and the bucket toilet. Even the municipality is not offering the people things to clean the toilet. They use their money to get things to clean the toilet.”

While admitting that the residential area should never have been developed without proper sanitation infrastructure, ward councillor Simphiwe Buthelezi says the municipality has so far built 190 pit latrines in the area.

He says there are also plans to connect France Extension to a sewage pipeline that is being installed in a neighbouring area.

“I can’t be specific on the timelines because our municipality is facing the challenges of the lack of budget. Therefore now we’ve got a plan that we are installing the main lines that can also assist the people of Extension, so they can build a sanitation system. But I can’t be specific on timelines.”