A family who turned an ablution block into a home say they have been cut off from municipal services.
The Koen family said their house near the Water World Fun Park in Leaches Bay area in East London has been without running water for almost five months now.
Scharon Koen, 50, said they were struggling.
“To live without water for such a long time is really hard for everyone, especially the children. We have to bath, cook, and do the dishes and laundry from the little water we manage to get by asking from other people.” The family of eight lives in a five-bedroom house, which used to be ablution blocks for several years.
BCM spokesperson Samkelo Ngwenya said the metro allowed the family to stay in the ablution facility because there was no other alternative accommodation for them.
“We can confirm that Ms Koen, five years ago, obtained the right to occupy the facilities, though our legal department was unhappy about this outcome as these are ablution facilities intended for the public to utilise. We, however, never appealed the permission granted to the individual as we did not have alternative accommodation to provide her and her family.”
Koen said she worked as a caretaker at Water World for several years.
“I was rebuilding some of the pools there and my kids were doing the slides, gates and fence. We first lived in a tent inside the Water World. I was working for the previous owners of the place.
“They rented it from the municipality, and when they left to go overseas, my former bosses asked the municipality to give me this house and they [BCM] said if I still looked after the Water World I could have it.”
Koen said the agreement was that they could fix the house and live in it.
“We put water pipes in and made this place liveable. We have got our own electricity box and we built toilets and baths inside.”
However, she could not provide documents to support her claim regarding the agreement.
She said the situation had a negative impact on the family, with four minors all under 10 years.
“There is a leak and no one came to look into that. During the past five months, we had water for only one day and they removed the meter.
“As a result we have been getting water from the race track but the management of that place is also complaining that we must stop using their water now, otherwise the water will be cut.”
“The individual was never employed by us, however, she was working as part of the extended public work programme [EPWP] that was appointed by the Coast Project which was a special project as such no employment or payment had anything to do with BCM,” Ngwenya said...