Botswana: Mayor blames Gaborone residents for pit latrine woes

Residents of Self-Help Housing Agency (SHHA) in Gaborone have been blamed for the clogging of machines used to empty pit latrines in their residences.

“They are the ones who throw in hard objects like metals and blankets in the pit latrines which end up blocking the pipes and damaging the vacuum tankers as they vacuum the toilets,” Gaborone mayor, Veronica Lesole said.

Lesole stated that they have held meetings in the SHHA areas to educate the public about not dumping certain objects in the pit latrines. “It is not failure on our part because the breakdown of the vacuum tankers is beyond our control and the residents have contributed to the breakdown themselves,” she said. She indicated that the situation in the SHHA areas has forced the council to outsource services for emptying pit latrines. “The invitation to tender has been submitted to the government gazette which has gone for print as we speak. If it was failure on our part to arrest the situation, we would not be running around calling for tenders,” the mayor said.

She explained that they called SHHA residents for a meeting to explain the problem just before the World Cup to discuss the problem but right now this is not possible. “Right now we thought that most people would be glued to their televisions watching football and might not come for the meetings. We will start calling them after the World Cup,” she said.

Last week, Lesole said in her mayoral speech at the full council that lack of funds to purchase new tankers has resulted in a backlog of over 1,000 households with pit latrines and septic tanks that need to be emptied. She stated that the situation is serious as sewage is spilling over in most SHHA areas. She said a request has been made for the repair of the vacuum tankers to be expedited.

Source:

Chandapiwa Baputaki, MmegiOnline, 29 June 2010

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