Twaloloka residents unhappy

Rudi Bowe

The Walvis Bay municipality availed four bucket mobile toilets to minimise the risks of Hepatitis E, following an outbreak at the town a few weeks ago.
Residents of the Twaloloka informal settlement in Kuisebmond Walvis Bay are unhappy with the mobile toilets as they are of the opinion the toilets will increase the spread of Hepatitis E at the settlement that is already vulnerable to other diseases due to ventilation and lack of appropriate sanitation.

A resident in the informal settlement Stacy Babello said that there were six cases of Hepatitis E with three just recently detected and that this type of bucket system will only make it worse instead of restrict it.
“This toilets cannot flush and this puts us the residents at bigger a risk to transmit illnesses. Before the bucket system toilets we the residents relieved our-selves in manholes that we dug in the ground” Babello added.
Nehale LyaMpingana Nehale, another resident said this is a health risk for the small children in the resettlement and that this is not what they expected. The area is serviced and the municipality could have put up proper temporary and dignified facilities for the residents.
“We request assistance from Walvis Bay Municipality for better facilities while they are working on the afford-able houses” Nehale added.
The representative of the municipality that was present with the handover of the toilets said that the rental company will clean the buckets six days a week except Sundays and that the rental cost will be paid by the Walvis Bay municipality.
Walvis Bay municipality said they did this to prevent the further spread of any disease and that the municipality at the Twaloloka settlement are looking at more sustainable solutions and apart from the contracted cleaning company, the resident must also clean after using the facilities.