A five-year-old girl has been rescued after being swallowed by a sinkhole at Wetland in the Khayelitsha Township of Cape Town, South Africa, on Friday 3 July 2006. The girl, who has not been named, was reportedly visiting her aunt in the area, when a section of road collapsed beneath her, leading her to fall into the hole and be covered over with sand. Local residents acted quickly, and were able to dig her out with handtools before serious harm occurred.
Sinkholes are generally caused by water eroding soft limestone or unconsolidated deposits from beneath, causing a hole that works its way upwards and eventually opening spectacularly at the surface. Where there are unconsolidated deposits at the surface they can infill from the sides, apparently swallowing objects at the surface, including people, without trace.
However, on this occasion the problem is thought to have been caused by a bulk sewer pipeline which lies beneath the area. The informal settlement at Wetland has been built over this pipeline, which is in a poor state of maintenance, in need of upgrading, and has suffered a number of sinkhole-related problems as sections of the pipeline have collapsed. Officials from the City of Cape Town, which is responsible for the pipeline, report that they expect more collapses on the pipeline, which they struggle to access because of the presence of the settlement.
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