Residents of Louisvale near Upington say they are living under degrading conditions.
They say the shovels used to clean their pit toilets, leads to sewerage spilling into nearby streets during the cleaning process.
A truck comes once a year to empty the toilets.
The sewage is scooped up by hands and shovels and dumped into the truck.
Residents say when their toilets get full before the annual cleaning, they’re forced to do it themselves and dump the sewage next to the dam, or relief themselves in the nearby bushes.
Resident Simon Franse says the situation is unbearable.
“You can’t even bring your friends who are staying outside Upington home because you feel ashamed that they should use that toilet, your clothes smell.”
“Some people still got the vip, some using the uds that is the one where they use the bucket or the wheelbarrow to get it out and push it through the community and dump it next to the dam,” says another resident, Louisa Louw.
The local municipality says the community opted to have these toilets installed 17 years ago, as it was much better than having no toilets
Dawid Kruiper Municipality Mayor Dimakatso Koloi says it will install flush toilets but is awaiting funds from the Water and Sanitation department.
“By then the community said it is better than zinc toilets or the bush that we used to use or those big stones that we used in the past, bring the toilets and as we are moving with developments as the municipality then we can look to what the government says is the standard primary service delivery.”
Meanwhile residents want the process to be sped up, as they cannot continue living under such undignified conditions.
