One tap is shared between more than 40 households in the community of Baipeing, which means ‘you have placed yourselves’. And what’s more is that the tap is situated in the dirty outskirts of the town where cows graze.
On a visit to the community, OurHealth spoke to a resident, Ntswaki Mokoena (38), who was doing her laundry at the tap while cows were grazing around her. “This is always the situation, at times the cows lick the tap. I fear that my kids are exposed to many germs and the water might not be a 100 percent healthy for human consumption,” Mokoena said
For more than 10 years the community has been complaining to the municipality about their living conditions but nothing has changed. “I have given up on assistance from the government, I thought by now we would all have taps in our yards. I am now used to sharing water with cows,” said another disgruntled resident, Dibuseng Matsima. “Children in our community suffer from diarrhoea more than any other disease, maybe the government wants us to die.”
A nurse at Mphohadi clinic, who asked to remain anonymous, confirmed that many children from Baipeing who come to the clinic are sick with diarrhoea.
According to a source (who also wants to remain anonymous) the local municipality is aware of the conditions at the Baipeing but have no plans to help them in the near future. – OurHealth/Health-e News Service
Selloane Molakeng is the OurHealth Citizen Journalist reporting from the Thabo Mofutsanyana health district in the Free State.
