The community of Snake Park suffers from Respiratory diseases.

Bongani Dladla

In my township of Thulani Snake- Park, we have a serious dust problem. This affects every household because we live adjacent to the tailing mine dump. Especially now that we are approaching a windy season, things are going to get worse because of sand storms. This mine-tailing dust has made people in my area suffer from respiratory illnesses like TB, lung cancer, asthma, and pneumonia. 

 

On my street, we have more than 20 people who are diagnosed with asthma. In every household, you will find that one or more people living with this sickness. I had a conversation with Sanele Mbatha, she was born in Snake Park on 1994-28-November. While she was growing up she did not have any health problems until when she turned 12 years old. She started to get sick because she used to go with her friends and play on the mine tailing dump during school holidays. One day her mother took her to the clinic for a check-up, unfortunately, she found out that her child had been infected with TB. Sanele was coughing every day and she could no longer attend school because she needed to finish her TB treatment.

 

Many of these respiratory sicknesses are triggered by the toxic dust we inhale every day. Our local clinic Siphumulile has many chronic patients who have TB, Pneumonia, Lung cancer, and asthma. I spoke to one of the care workers who told me that they even do home visits because some of the patients who suffer from TB can’t even walk to the clinic and get medication. She says “In Snake Park, more than 50 people die every year because of TB. Many are living with oxygen machines because of lung cancer”.

 

We are living in fear every day because we cannot run away from our homes because of this dust. We must take action to clean our environment.