This week marks 2016 Sanitation Week and the theme for this year remains It’s not all about flushing.

The Department of Water and Sanitation together with Makana Local Municipality will be celebrating Sanitation Week in Grahamstown for all of next week where the focus will be on user education as well as health and hygiene.

The main objective of celebrating Sanitation and Hygiene Month is to raise the profile of sanitation and encourage local government and communities to prioritise sanitation, health and hygiene.

Further the period is to highlight the work that the department is doing to ensure that:

• All South Africans have access to decent sanitation
• The critical importance of looking after sanitation facilities is advocated
• Communities are well informed of the need to practice good hygiene practices, like washing of hands after using the toilet and before preparing food
• Communities and stakeholders are well informed and updated of the progress made in sanitation provision and health & hygiene promotion programme

 

The state of SA’s sanitation

Minister of Water and Sanitation Nomvula Mokonyane last week announced that her department has now delivered decent sanitation to 80% of the country’s population.

“The eradication of a legacy of bucket toilets left by the apartheid system has robbed communities of the right to decent and basic sanitation for all,” Mokonyane said in her recent budget vote speech.

In a verification process, the department confirmed some 55 217 bucket toilets predominantly in the Free State Province (with the highest backlog), Northern Cape, Eastern Cape and North West (with the least buckets in existence).

However, Mokonyane said efforts at augmenting the municipal programme of eradicating the sanitation backlog in the 27 priority district municipalities are on track:

• In the Eastern Cape the department delivered 2395 toilets in five district municipalities
• In KwaZulu Natal – 5251 in 10 district municipalities
• Limpopo – 1306 in four district municipalities
• Free State – 360 in one district municipality
• North West – 900 in two district municipalities
• 798 new toilets in Mpumalanga in one district municipality

 

Sanitation – Sustainable Development Goals

In September 2015, together with 192 other countries, South Africa through the United Nations committed itself to the realisation of the targets set in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

For the very first time, water and sanitation was adopted as a stand-alone Goal 6: Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all.

“Implementation of the SDGs will require us to pay attention to the quality of projects in order to ensure quality and reliability, as underscored in the Sustainable Development Goals. With this budget we will continue working hard to ensure that women like MaDlamini from Umkhanyakude and MaChauke from Giyani, cease to be victims of indecent assault and humiliation through bringing quality dignified sanitation and quality within their reach,” said Mokonyane.