Raw sewage spillages have forced an elderly woman of Bloemfontein to abandon her house while her children risk their lives staying the flooded house. Motlalepula Swart (61), recipient of state old-age grant has not slept in her house since November last year.
She sleeps at her neighbour’s place while waiting the problem of sewage resolved.
The old woman is facing a health-hazard battle of raw sewage spillage flooding her house in Joe Slovo. The spillages are from a blocked manhole in Ward 4 of the Mangaung Metro Municipality.
Swart’s family, one of them mentally challenged daughter, risked their lives to stay in the house, despite unpleasant smell of the raw sewage. Among them are two minors, aged three and five. “They remain and sleep in the house because of the rife crime of burglary and theft. Besides, they have no place to be accommodated. My life is miserable and my desperate pleads for help have fallen on deaf ears,” says Swart. She says they emptied the sewage using containers.
According to Swart, life has become miserable for her family too. She says the conditions have subject them to real life of pigs, whose owner does not care about the wellbeing but interested just to make money. “The condition has impact to my health status. I fear for my children too,” says Swart.
According to her, it’s a norm to spent days trapped in a house flooded with raw sewage. She says the furniture is being damaged and forever submerged in sewage water.
“The house is not habitable at all,” laments Swart. She says the house also gets flooded during rainy days because the foundation is too low.
