Residents stuck without sanitation and water

Sanitation and water seem to have been the least of worries for the City of Johannesburg’s Department of Housing when they moved Taylor Road Squatters to Ruimsig Informal Settlement more than two weeks ago. According to the spokesperson for the Department of Housing, Bubu Xuba, preparations are underway to get additional water and sanitation to the new section of the informal settlement.

“Joburg Water has already done site visits to assess where the water and sanitation points will be placed,”said Xuba. As a temporary arrangement, she said the residents, however, currently do have access to water and sanitation within the larger informal settlement. “We are working as fast as we can to ensure that the additional water is supplied as a priority,”added Xuba.

However, residents rubbished this statement by the department and said they have not been provided with any temporary arrangement, especially for sanitation. “We are currently using the bushes to relieve ourselves, imagine how demeaning that is for us as women,” complained one of the female residents who recently moved into the settlement.

On the other hand, Ward 97 councillor, Jaco Engelbrecht is not impressed with the manner in which the relocation took place. “Unfortunately, the City has never had a proper and clear approach to housing development and the process of registering for a house and of keeping such a register updated and relevant is a shambles,” said Engelbrecht.

He added that the Ruimsig settlement has been identified as being located on an area that is not fit for human habitation, due to its proximity to a quarry and due to its encroachment on a wetland. “The City is, in fact, in possession of a court order that allows it to demolish any new shack that is built on that land – much to the dismay and anger of residents of the settlement, who often have to move shacks out of the wetland to a safer area, or who may need to make space for a growing family. Imagine the annoyance of these people to now see that a large number of new residents are moved into the area and provided with shacks on land where they have been forbidden to build themselves,” he added.

He also stated his dissatisfaction about people being relocated to shacks. “The fact that people are moved from one shack in one area to another shack in another area not fit for habitation, is a major abjuration by the City of its stated approach and promises to the people. People should be moved into housing developments – not shacks,” said Engelbrecht.

He vowed to pressurise the City Council and provincial office to ensure that a housing project is identified and launched for the people of Ruimsig.