Byo allocates $187K to end shared toilets in Emabuthweni, Iminyela

Mbekezeli Ncube

Bulawayo Ward 9 Councillor, Donaldson Mabutho has announced a US$187,000 allocation for the Emabuthweni Iminyela Redevelopment strategy.

This project aims to improve living conditions in one of the city’s oldest suburbs, where residents currently face health risks due to a lack of proper sanitation facilities.

The allocation comes in response to resident concerns. “We are living in fear of outbreaks such as cholera,” said Bekithemba Ngwenya, a resident. “Can you imagine one toilet being shared by four families? The city is faced by water challenges and we have to travel quite a distance to collect toilet water from an abandoned pit.”
Nothando Ncube, another resident, echoed these concerns. “This issue of toilets has affected us for far too long. On average, a family has 6 people so multiply that by 4, which means that 24 people share one toilet,” she said. “What worries us most is that the toilets can’t be locked or monitored, meaning even a passer-by can use it and chances of leaving it dirty since there is no water are very high. We call upon the city council to intervene before some life threatening diseases attack us.”

Councillor Mabutho acknowledged the urgency of the situation and outlined the municipality’s plan to address it. “We came up with the Emabuthweni Iminyela Redevelopment Strategy which has a US$187,000 budget,” he said. “However, we don’t have that kind of money as yet but the budget has been allocated so that we can try and redevelop Emabuthweni and Iminyela. We are mainly focused on the toilets, so that each and every family can have their own toilet. On the other side, Emabuthweni residents were bought a brick moulding machine during the tenure of their previous councillor so I’m still following up what happened to that machine so that they can make their own bricks for building the toilets,” Mabutho said.

This initiative by the Bulawayo City Council, with a focus on providing each family with their own toilet, aims to improve public health and living standards for residents in Emabuthweni Iminyela.