The Shiyabazali settlement lies perched high up at the cliff of the Umgeni gorge, between the magestic, well known Howick Falls and the Dunlop factory. It is built upon the old Howick dump site from which they harvest materials for their shacks for years.
The settlement comprises of an estimated 1500 dwellings. Most of these shacks were built from materials varying from planks, cardboard, plastic, newspaper, wire corrugated iron, tree stumps felled from nearby trees and much more from this dump. These people are being subjected to a lot of water pollution on the river that is currently their only source of water, besides two standby taps that no longer work properly, they are also facing waste disposal and latrine hazards.
The Howick falls forms part of the Kwa-Zulu Natal Midlands Tourist Route and is part of the Umgeni River, of which 7km of it falls within Umgeni Valley Nature Reserve,30km away from Pietermaritsburg, situated just outside Howick on the road to Karkloof and also in which the WESSA Environmental Education Centre is based.
The establishment of the settlement is a results of the 1980's labour unrest, which led to Sarmcol Industry to permitting it's workers to settle within the property. The settlement comprises of polulations of Zulu, Xhosa, Mpondo, the greatest population being the Sothos.
Shiyabazali has in the modern past been assisted only by service organisations such as NGO's, churches and clinics offering services for education, food, health and social support.
The falls has but received the title of “Tallest sewage falls” owing to the amount of pollution from contributors such as the Howick Waste Water Treatment Works, Fairfield Dairy and other inputs from storm water varying from pollution to storm water drainage from the Howick town and the surrounding townships; namely Mpophomeni and Sphumelele wich are continuously experiencing raw sewage leakages.
UMngeni River comprises of four pump stations between Midmar Dam and Howick Falls that for many years been pumping raw sewage into uMngeni River, on almost a daily basis, with responsible officials 'totally unaware'.
The Howick Waste Water Treatment Works is said to be, overworking its capacity and discarding almost five million litres of often partially treated sewage a day into the uMngeni River.
Residents of Shiyabazali are noted to be using the stream above the fall for domestic purposes such as, doing their washing and also by some, the river banks are used as a latrine.
The situation at Shiyabazali can be linked to many political, economical, social and ecological attributes in our country, but the purpose of this initiative is in the hope of those willing to buy into a challenge that purely affects everyone who has a heart of crafting change.
This blog will be targeting and forming a family of networks both inside and outside Howick,uniting into bringing a change into the lives of people in Shiyas and in any measure of way possible to lend a helping hand.
Below, some links to The Witness Newpaper articles on the Shiyas settlement, you need to go to the site below and type in Shiyabazali.
www.witness.co.za.Feed-http://www.witness.co.za
Howick’s Thokoza to be moved
30 Jul 2008
Thando Mgaga
Sold waste mountain
27 Nov 2008
Tim Lindsay-White
