R76m needed to eradicate bucket system in Nelson Mandela Bay

The Nelson Mandela Bay municipality needs R76m to rid the city of its remaining 6,000 bucket toilets.

This is according to a report by infrastructure, engineering and energy director Amsha Muthayan, which was presented to councillors on Monday.

Muthayan wrote that the bucket toilets were located in 132 informal settlements scattered across the city.

The report recommended a budget adjustment be made, with the funds being sourced from the operating and capital budgets.

“The only intervention is to do a budget amendment delay [on] some projects in order to provide for basic services to these informal settlements.”

The money would be used for pipes and 3,432 chemical toilets.

Infrastructure and engineering political head Andile Lungisa said the budget proposal would be presented to the council for approval later this month.

“The provision of water and the eradication of bucket toilets is a priority for the city and the funds are available in our system but would have to be deviated from projects that are underperforming,” he said.

The city has already missed a February deadline to eradicate bucket toilets set by Lungisa in December last year. .

In the report, Muthayan said one of the challenges to eradicate the bucket system was that some of the affected households were on private land.

“In the past, services were only provided to formalised settlements located on municipality-owned land,” he wrote.

“Today a bigger problem presents itself, as a mixed bag of settlements now need to be provided with water and sanitation.

“To provide services to inhabitants located on non-municipal land might open the municipality to litigation,” Muthayan said.

Another challenge highlighted was that  some residents had opted to keep using the bucket system until they were given a house.

DA councillor Masixole Zinto said the party would not support using municipal money where illegal land invasions had taken place.

He said in many cases the invaded land was zoned for schools and clinics.

Shelton Smith, of Uitenhage, said bucket toilets were unhygienic and posed many health risks.

“We’ve been using this system for years and it just seems every year there is a new reason for the delays,” he said.

“While they delay, the people suffer. The smell is severe and children are the most at risk.

“We’ve heard the system was eradicated in the Western Cape and hope our government can do the same for us.”