The department of water affairs and forestry in the Western Cape on Sunday announced that it had reached President Thabo Mbeki's target of eradicating the bucket toilet system in all formal areas.
This means none of the province's municipalities use the bucket system anymore. Bucket toilets pose serious health and environmental risks.
Department of water affairs and forestry regional director Rashid Khan said the department worked very hard to get rid of about 4 600 bucket toilets in the province and was pleased to be able to announce that it had reached its target at the beginning of National Sanitation Week, which ends on Saturday.
Other provinces were not able to reach their targets.
The department has to date spent R57-million in the Western Cape to eradicate the bucket system in formal areas and to get rid of its sanitation backlogs.
Communities that benefited include Genadendal, Wupperthal, George and Zoar in Kannaland, where 440 households will formally receive their new ablution facilities on Monday at an event jointly organised by the department and the Kannaland local municipality.
Khan said the achievement in Kannaland was a feat, because the area is very rocky and it was difficult to put in new toilets.
Departmental spokesperson Mamosedi Maleka said government was committed to "eradicating the sanitation backlog which is an international problem affecting all countries".
"One of the reasons for the backlog is that sanitation has not been regarded as a priority, thus the need to raise the profile of sanitation in order to change the mindsets of municipalities and communities through advocacy programmes and campaigns," she said.
Khan said the next target was to ensure that human waste did not flow to rivers. - Cape Times
This means none of the province's municipalities use the bucket system anymore. Bucket toilets pose serious health and environmental risks.
Department of water affairs and forestry regional director Rashid Khan said the department worked very hard to get rid of about 4 600 bucket toilets in the province and was pleased to be able to announce that it had reached its target at the beginning of National Sanitation Week, which ends on Saturday.
Other provinces were not able to reach their targets.
The department has to date spent R57-million in the Western Cape to eradicate the bucket system in formal areas and to get rid of its sanitation backlogs.
Communities that benefited include Genadendal, Wupperthal, George and Zoar in Kannaland, where 440 households will formally receive their new ablution facilities on Monday at an event jointly organised by the department and the Kannaland local municipality.
Khan said the achievement in Kannaland was a feat, because the area is very rocky and it was difficult to put in new toilets.
Departmental spokesperson Mamosedi Maleka said government was committed to "eradicating the sanitation backlog which is an international problem affecting all countries".
"One of the reasons for the backlog is that sanitation has not been regarded as a priority, thus the need to raise the profile of sanitation in order to change the mindsets of municipalities and communities through advocacy programmes and campaigns," she said.
Khan said the next target was to ensure that human waste did not flow to rivers. - Cape Times
1 comment:
If they really have taken all the buckets away then where are the people "going" to do their business. What they really meant to say is that they are no longer "servicing" any of the sites where there were buckets. If not then where are the new "ablution blocks"?
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