Stinky water headache!

NEW Rest kasi residents in the Crossroads City of Cape Town said they wouldn’t vote because those they put in power are failing them.

Residents said they have been living with a pond of dirty water since November. They said the water pond was formed by rainwater because of a blocked drainage system.

Despite reporting to the City of Cape Town, they said the problem continues and is now a health hazard to their children.

We spoke to community members who showed us kids that have rashes because they play with the dirty water. As winter rains approach, residents fear that the dirty water will flow into their homes.

Community leader Buli Kopolo (35) said the problem in their kasi has been ongoing since last year and nothing is being done to deal with it.

“I run a saloon here, and people struggle to walk into my saloon because of the green water. Government has abandoned us,” she said.

Another community leader, madala William Selani (59), said the City of Cape Town must open a clogged drain.

“It’s not a big problem; I don’t know why they are not fixing it. They must bring their machinery and unclog the drain so that the dirty water starts moving away. It’s stinky, and it’s making our children sick. We don’t want this in our kasi,” said Selani.

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Resident Noncedo Makubalo (32) believes voting for politicians is a waste of time.

“They came here promising us heaven on earth, promising to fix all our problems, but today we are living like pigs, and they live in mansions. I will not waste my time voting for politicians who keep lying to us,” she said.

Residents showed the SunTeam children who had a rash all over their bodies, which they suspected emanated from the dirty water. They said kids play anywhere and do not care whether the water is dirty. The City of Cape Town confirmed the matter, saying they had sent a contractor to attend the matter.

 MMC for Urban Mobility Rob Quintas said: “We currently have a contractor on site attending the cleaning of this channel which is filled with illegally dumped material that is preventing water from draining freely, thus causing the ‘stagnant’ water. Please note that this operation takes time because all the material that is dumped there must be manually removed.

“We have also experienced some delays related to the verification of local labour to be used on site. Importantly, the City tried to address this issue in October/November last year through another project. Still, the city was stopped by the community, which did not want the contractor on site. Thus, the service delivery effort was prevented by the very community that is impacted by this challenge. We plead with members of this community to allow us to complete the project and not disrupt our efforts to remedy the situation,” said Quintas.