SAMANTHA RIDDLE
THE Basic Education Department has set itself a deadline to completely eradicate pit toilets in schools.
Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga has responded to a written question in Parliament, confirming plans to remove the dependency on pit toilets at the identified schools by early 2022.
The most recent statistics revealed that there are nearly 4 000 schools still making use of these toilets.
Motshekga has committed to eradicating pit latrines by March 2022.
Motshekga further commented that over 700 have been assessed and the sanitation facilities have been dubbed of ‘an appropriate standard’: “The remaining 2 746 schools require intervention to eradicate the dependency on basic pit toilets.”
The data revealed that the majority of these schools were situated in KwaZulu-Nata (1 168) and the Eastern Cape (997).
Limpopo had the highest number amongst the inland regions (298), the Free State has 123 and Mpumalanga has 106 while the North West has 55.
The DA-led Western Cape province has no pit latrines in schools with Gauteng also manage to eradicate the issue.
Director-General Mathanzima Mweli commented in the long road ahead to see the end of pit latrines: “What compounds our problem is that during the festive season the storms that we had destroyed many schools in KZN. Over a thousand schools were damaged in Ixopo.”
The official says that the state has allocated funds for three years to ensure schools have acceptable ablution facilities.
(SOURCE: BRIEFLY)
