One year after Health-e News reported on Stinkwater’s sanitation crisis, residents say conditions have worsened. 

For thousands of residents in Stinkwater, near Hammanskraal north of Pretoria, pit toilets remain the only form of sanitation nearly 60 years after the settlement was established. 

As old pit toilets fill up and groundwater floods newly dug ones, families say they are running out of space. 

Groundwater unfit for human consumption

In 2019 the Human Rights Commission of South Africa declared the underground water in Stinkwater – home to more than 39 thousand people – not fit for human consumption. The area remains severely impacted by waterlogging, poor drainage and overflowing sewage spills.

Health-e News first reported on the community’s sanitation problems and health concerns in July last year. 

Residents say today old pit toilets are collapsing, newly dug pits are filling with groundwater, and some households have almost no space left to dig another toilet.

Stinkwater resident, Thomas Mahlangu has dug across most of his yard to make space for pit toilets. He is now left with the choice of putting the next toilet near his kitchen door or at the front of his house.

Mahlangu says a pit toilet lasts about six months before the wet ground and water begin to weaken it.

“This is where the digging started. The first toilet was here, and this was the second one. And this is number three, and there is number four there,” he says while showing Health-e News around his yard. 

Mahlangu says they are running out of space to dig pit toilets. He says one of the pit toilets is already close to collapsing.

“It won’t last a week until it collapses. And then we’ll start with number seven right in the front”

Ward 95 councillor Willy Kgopa says Mahlangu’s situation is common in Stinkwater, where many households have already dug several pit toilets in their yards.

“We have been living with this for more than fifty years in our yards while others are just one press of a button away to flush the unwanted away,” he says.

Kgopa says he has raised the problem through the City of Tshwane’s Integrated Development Plan programme.

“I have explained to the authorities in our Integrated Development Plan programme that there is no more space in our area to dig pit holes,” he says.

“Imagine when one is sick and has to be lifted to the pit latrine which is at a distance and at a collapsing stage”.

80-year-old resident, Nokuthula* says the pit toilet in her yard is in a poor condition and she is afraid to use it alone.

“You don’t have to put too much weight or pressure when you are entering this toilet. Anytime you may sink with it,” she says.

“If I fall in there, they don’t have to dig a grave for me, they can use that pit.”

Nokuthula* says she has to step carefully when entering the toilet.

“I am scared when I have to use it. There must be someone around in case the structure collapses, and I will be rescued.”

Nokuthula* says the family does not allow children to use the pit toilet because they fear they could fall inside.

“We have set aside a bucket for the children to use,” she says.

“Sometimes the children relieve themselves on the ground and an adult uses a shovel to move the waste into the pit.”

Johannes Sekano, another Stinkwater resident, says groundwater often starts pushing up while residents are digging new pits.

Sekano says he uses an empty paint container as a toilet at night.

“I can’t go outside. It’s so dark and the toilet is in the middle of grass, and there are snakes,” he says.

Back at Mahlangu’s house, the family is already planning where to dig the seventh pit toilet in their yard because the old ones filled up, are waterlogged or have started collapsing.

“I so wish that we can flush. It’s so hard to live this life, I can’t take it anymore,” he says. 

“Can somebody please hear our prayers?” 

*Not her real name.