Informal settlement flooded by filthy water
At least 172 residents impacted
Peter Luhanga
Relentless winter rains have caused a dam near Dunoon to overflow, flooding the homes of 172 residents in Ekuphumuleni informal settlement.
Situated behind the Dunoon municipal hall, the dam has breached its banks, pushing dark, polluted water into people’s homes.
The murky brown water is laden with debris and domestic waste, and smells like sewage.
Affected residents have used crates and concrete blocks to raise their beds and furniture above the scummy water in their homes.
On Saturday 20 July, just before noon, the informal settlement was awash in murky brown water, flowing through shallow trenches that residents had dug between shacks in a desperate attempt to divert the flooding from their homes. Despite their efforts, the water continued to seep into their living spaces.
Lindile Nxana, 43, has been living in the Ekuphumuleni informal settlement for 19 years, sharing a two-room shack with his wife and their three children, aged ten, 11, and 23.
Nxana said he tried laying municipal refuse bags on the floor to stop the water seeping into his bedroom, but it didn’t help. He, along with his wife and children, has since moved to his lounge, which serves as a kitchen, and has been sleeping there since the heavy downpour on Thursday18 July.
“Water is coming from the ground. When we scoop the water, within a minute it fills up again,” says Nxana.
He had dug a trench just outside his shack in an effort to redirect the flow from the dam.
“Last winter was the same. The City of Cape Town must come up with a plan for us,” he said.
Nokuthula Peti, 33, has also lived in Ekuphumuleni for 19 years, and shares her one-room shack with her children, aged six months, six years, and 12.
Peti says the two older children sleep on the floor, while Nokuthula sleeps on a bed with her baby. On Friday 19 July, she asked her cousin and neighbour if she could accommodate her two older children, as the water seeping in to their shack was relentless.
“My children are sleeping at my cousin’s shack, as my shack floor is wet,” says Peti.
As one walks inside her shack, each step feels as if the ground might give way, with the floor emitting a squelching sound. The sensation is unsettling, as if the waterlogged ground might swallow each footfall. This is her home. Just behind her shack is the dam, which has reached full capacity.
Peti’s cousin, Nikiwe Tshoba, a mother of three, said they haven’t been sleeping since the heavy downpour last week, fearing that the dam might overflow and wash away the shacks along its edge.
“We need help. Either fix the dam or relocate us. The water is dirty, like an open sewer. In the upper section of Bekhela informal settlement, they don’t have toilets. They discard their faeces in the dam and in the water canal from the N7 that passes through the settlement,” says Tshoba.
When the dam began reaching capacity last week, she says they reported it to the City’s Fire and Rescue Services, but no one responded. Last year, they reported the issue to the City’s Disaster Management; they came, took down their names, and that was the end of it.
“If we were renting, we could have vacated these homes for safety, but we own them and have Eskom electricity meters. We purchase our own electricity,” she says.
Ekuphumuleni community leader Thobeka Hlamvana says they had sought access to the Dunoon municipal hall but the Blaauwberg subcouncil had reportedly stated the municipal hall would not accommodate all affected people.
Hlamvana says a list of 172 affected residents has been compiled since Sunday14 July, shortly after the storm. Those affected include young children.
Subcouncil 3 manager Roxanne Moses says the disaster management department within her subcouncil assessed the informal settlement near the dam over the weekend and offered them “milling” (fine rubble to raise their floors), and returned on Monday 22 July for further evaluation.
“They also offered flood relief kits,” says Moses.