Cape Town - Of South Africa's households, 1.4 million or
about 11% have no sanitation facilities or services.
According to a report entitled The Quality of Sanitation in
South Africa, which was discussed in parliament on Wednesday, the government
needs to invest R44.5bn to solve the sanitation crisis.
The report found that:
- Apart
from the 11% of households with no services, a further 26% where infrastructure
does exist are on the brink of collapse.
- Of South
Africa's 826 bulk waste treatment facilities, 317 may collapse without
immediate intervention.
- Municipalities
are partly to blame because they are not spending their capital budget
allocations. The report says in 2011/12 municipalities spent only 30% of their
capital budget allocations, the majority of which was not spent on sanitation.
- Municipalities
have severe skill constraints in the field of sanitation, with very little
maintenance and planning being done in this regard.
Achmed Vawda, deputy director general in the presidency's
unit for performance management and evaluation, presented the report before the
portfolio committee for human settlements on Wednesday.
The presidency was tasked to investigate the status of South
africa's sanitation, after two communities from Khayelitsha and Rammulotsi in
the Free State complained over toilet facilities in 2011.
The South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) and the
Cape Town High Court found last year that the toilet facilities in these
communities violated their human rights.
Vawda told the meeting on Wednesday that South Africa should
brace itself for further protest action over toilet facilities and sanitation.
"We canot say where these protests will happen, but we
know which areas are the worst off."
The report found that communities in Gauteng and the Western
Cape had the most acceptable sanitation services in the country.
Worst-off provinces are KwaZulu-Natal, Eastern Cape and
Northwest.
Nomhle Dambuza, ANC MP and chairperson of the human
settlements committee, said the committee is already hard at work across the
country to look at ways of solving the sanitation problem.
"The biggest thing we need is a centrally located unit
that specialises in sanitation, located in the department of human settlements,
to look into the issue as a priority."
DA MP Stevens Mokgalapa said the ANC government promised
access to proper toilets to all South Africans by 2014.
"It will take a miracle to reach this target – and
nearly R50bn."
The report has been delivered to the SAHRC and will now be
delivered to cabinet.
- Fin24
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