Disir
Platinum Member
- Sep 30, 2011
- 28,003
- 9,608
- 910
Residents of Siyahlala informal settlement, Khayelitsha, have started to install their own water pipes.
“We can’t ask the City of Cape Town to give us water taps while it sends law enforcement officials to destroy our shacks,” says community leader Noxolo Sam. “We have to use our own initiative.”
Sam said a community meeting in May resolved to collect the money for the project.
“When a fire breaks out residents must have water to extinguish it. And children must have water to bathe before they go to school,” said Sam.
She said residents in the nearby Phase 3 neighbourhood didn’t like shack dwellers collecting water from their taps. “The residents hate us and say we stay on a land that is earmarked for their RDP houses,” said Sam.
Newcomers to Siyahlala pay R400, while other residents contribute R100 towards the purchase of water pipes and taps. Community leaders manage the project and keep the money.
Khayelitsha residents install their own communal taps
So, if they are coming to burn down the shacks then they could just as easily destroy the water taps as they are illegal.
“We can’t ask the City of Cape Town to give us water taps while it sends law enforcement officials to destroy our shacks,” says community leader Noxolo Sam. “We have to use our own initiative.”
Sam said a community meeting in May resolved to collect the money for the project.
“When a fire breaks out residents must have water to extinguish it. And children must have water to bathe before they go to school,” said Sam.
She said residents in the nearby Phase 3 neighbourhood didn’t like shack dwellers collecting water from their taps. “The residents hate us and say we stay on a land that is earmarked for their RDP houses,” said Sam.
Newcomers to Siyahlala pay R400, while other residents contribute R100 towards the purchase of water pipes and taps. Community leaders manage the project and keep the money.
Khayelitsha residents install their own communal taps
So, if they are coming to burn down the shacks then they could just as easily destroy the water taps as they are illegal.
