Question 211
Mr Z S Makhubele (ANC) to ask the Minister of Basic Education:
Whether her department envisages dealing with backlogs regarding water and sanitation in schools; if not, why not; if so, what (a) is the current status and (b) measures are being implemented in this regard?
a) Currently, 1307 and 536 schools are without water and sanitation, respectively.
b) Provincial Departments of Education, within their normal School Building Programmes, especially the eradication of inappropriate structures and major renovations to schools, are making significant progress in the eradication of these backlogs. There are also donor funded programmes aimed at contributing to the eradication of these backlogs, such as i) the EU is finalising funding conditions to make available approximately R66 million, over three years, to provide sanitation to schools, ii) the Coca-Cola Foundation led consortium has finalised an agreement with the department to provide water and sanitation to about 100 schools across all provinces.
In line with government’s key objectives for delivering services to the public and in particular the poor, the Department of Basic Education has been working with the Department of Water Affairs and the Department of Energy to implement and manage the provision of water, sanitation and electricity infrastructure to schools.
My department has developed the Accelerated School Infrastructure Delivery Initiative (ASIDI) in order to eliminate all backlogs in our schools, including water, sanitation, electricity, fencing, and inappropriate structures by 2014.
Source: Department of Education
