Donkerhoek resorts to bucket toilets

SOME residents of Donkerhoek informal settlement at Khorixas have to resort to bucket toilets due to a lack of proper sanitation facilities.

The settlement is home to more than 2 500 people.

Theresia Tjikuru (62) says she makes use of an empty container when nature calls.

“In the morning I pour my container out at the refuse heap just a street away from my house. It’s not good to use a bucket toilet, but what must I do?” she asked.

Tjikuru says as an older person she does not have the energy to walk to a nearby hill to relieve herself.

Mberivera Tjihanununa says she goes to a nearby riverbed at night, and to the hills during the day when nature calls.

“We are begging for toilets. We cannot continue like this,” she says.

Tjihanununa says it is unsafe to walk to the riverbed at night as one can get attacked and raped.

/Irus !Naibas says: “If you are raped, they will ask what you were you doing there that late.”

!Naibas says the lack of toilets is dehumanising for residents of the settlement.

“If I have an upset stomach, I must just pull my pants down and sit while guys look at you. There is no dignity for us,” she says.

Jannie /Uiseb says bucket toilets are regularly emptied at the nearby refuse heap.

“There is no proper place to throw things away. We empty our buckets on heaps, which causes tension with the neighbours,” he says.

/Uiseb says it is a health risk, since children at times play around the refuse heap.

“It’s unhealthy, but that’s the life we live,” he says.

Andreas /Howoseb, the chief executive officer of the Khorixas Town Council, says a sewerage system has not been established in the informal area yet.

“It is one of the priorities of the council, and will be rolled out as funds become available for capital projects,” /Howoseb says.

He says Donkerhoek was formalised, planned, and surveyed, and water supply has been provided.

Prepaid water meters were rolled out at the settlement, he says.

“The plan is to give households ownership of the erven which they are on, and to sell it for N$15 per square metre. A person sitting on a 300 square metre erf can buy it for N$4 500,” he says.

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