South Africa’s protracted schools sanitation crisis, which comes with an estimated R10-billion price tag to eradicate pit latrines, has prompted a call to action to corporates, non-government organisations and ordinary citizens to help restore the dignity of the country’s most disadvantaged learners.

According to Unilever tens of thousands of learners at close to 4000 state schools are still being deprived of their fundamental human right to water and sanitation. Records show that four children have died in school pit latrines in South Africa since 2014.

The two who drowned in separate incidents in the Eastern Cape and Limpopo were five-year olds Lumka Mkhethwa and Michael Komape. Two other children died when the walls surrounding the makeshift toilets collapsed on them.

“If there is any hope of realising the government’s target of eliminating pit latrines at the country’s schools by March 2022, only about 16 months from now, we are all going to have to step up our efforts,” says Henry Muchauraya, Marketing Director – Home & Hygiene at Unilever.

Issuing the challenge on World Toilet Day on November 19, Unilever and its brand Domestos turned the spotlight on the country’s not-so-secret shame.

In August 2018, President Cyril Ramaphosa announced the Sanitation Appropriate for Education (SAFE) plan to eradicate these pit latrines across all schools in the following two years. During the State of the Nation Address in 2019, he reaffirmed the commitment, but increased the implementation period by a further year. 

At the time, the SA Human Rights Commission commented that the responsibility for raising the requisite R10 billion for the rollout, which the government said it hoped to raise with the assistance of the private sector, might rightly lie with business. While the Commission was adamant than an unequivocal commitment from government was needed, it suggested that recourse to the private sector may be justified, “given the role business must play in positively impacting society”.

Domestos is committed to the cause, not only partnering with the Department of Basic Education to deliver hygiene education to millions of primary school learners via the National Schools Hygiene and Sanitation Programme, but also raising R500 000 through sales on World Toilet Day 2019 to build new toilet facilities in a school. This year, Domestos has already funded new toilet facilities at five Eastern Cape schools, with toilets at two KwaZulu-Natal schools set for completion by the end of next month.

“In 2018, Domestos also launched a School Janitor Programme, equipping janitors with training, uniforms and cleaning equipment and products to help them keep toilet facilities hygienic in numerous schools across South Africa,” Muchauraya adds.

Sanitation is absolutely critical to children, from both an educational and health perspective, which is why the eradication of pit latrines is, and must remain, a top priority for everyone in South Africa. Three of the four main reasons learners fail to attend school are sanitation related, these include intestinal worms, upper respiratory tract infections and diarrhoea.

Out of almost 25 000 schools nationwide, the almost 4 000 schools with pit latrines are primarily in the Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal and Limpopo. A total 61 schools in the Eastern Cape have no toilets at all and 1 585 have pit latrines, while 1 379 pit latrines remain in use at KwaZulu-Natal schools.

The health risks are evidenced in World Health Organisation (WHO) statistics that show that more than 800 000 people in low- and middle-income countries die annually as a result of inadequate water, sanitation, and hygiene. Poor sanitation is believed to be the main cause of more than half of these deaths. The World Health Organisation also red flags the fact that better water, sanitation and hygiene could prevent the deaths of as many as 297 000 children younger than five every year.

From an education perspective, the range of impact on learning, according to the Water Research Commission’s 2017 School Sanitation Management Handbook, includes learners missing classes while waiting for toilets or leaving school to relieve themselves, girls staying home during their menstrual cycles, and threatening or humiliating experiences in the pit toilets compromising children’s ability to thrive at school.

“Working in collaboration to find workable solutions for school sanitation in the country is critical and cannot be done in isolation. Working together with DBE and other corporate partners including Norcros, Designdex, Italtile, Plumblink and Envirosan have enabled the impact we have been able to make so far. PPC and Spar have come on board to assist in building more toilets in the new year” says Muchauraya.

Muchauraya appeals to company heads across the spectrum to join forces to drive the realisation of universal access to safe sanitation and clean drinking water: “Businesses that positively impact the people that they serve are sustainable.” In 2015, the WHO estimated the global economic costs associated with productivity losses due to sanitation-related deaths and illnesses at $222.9 billion – or 75% of South Africa’s expected GDP 2020.

“This is money that could have been much better spent on infrastructure, education, hunger alleviation programmes, safety measures, good governance mechanisms, and other priorities outlined in the Sustainable Development Goals,” he says.