Over the past decade, residents of Arabelang Street in Top City in Ikageng have been dealing with a sewage issue that is only getting worse.
The situation is particularly painful for Dipuo Madito, who grew up witnessing her parents suffering from the same sewage issue.
“For years, my parents constantly reported the issue, but it was never resolved. My parents have passed on without seeing it fixed,” Madito said. According to the 33-year-old, people from the municipality come and do inspections from time to time, but the issue never seems to stop.
“They fix it today, and we are back to square one tomorrow,” she said. Madito has a four-year-old who suffers from asthma, which is often made worse by their living conditions. “This is very bad. We cannot keep living like this.
My daughter is constantly in and out of the hospital,” she said. According to her, the situation is so bad that she takes her daughter to her sister’s house every day after school for the rest of the afternoon. They only come back home late at night to sleep. “We do this to avoid the horrible smell. We cannot deal with this; one cannot get used to this,” she lamented.
This is not the only way the Madito family has been inconvenienced. They also have to use their neighbour’s toilet and washing line. Their toilet is completely clogged, and their yard is full of sewage. It is impossible to hang their washing out to dry.
“A street vendor a few streets away from us even asked me how we cope when he cannot even stand the smell where he is,” she said. Madito says the sewage is green and black, and all sorts of things come out of there. “We use strong cleaning detergents to try and neutralise the smell, but even that does not help,” she lamented. “What else should we do? We are tired of having to cover ourselves up completely when we sleep.”
Madito says the mayor is aware of the issue and pleads with him to do something. “I do not like seeing children suffer. I am asking with a broken heart; we are tired of living in this filth.” The Herald asked the municipality for comment but had not received a response by the time of print.
