A delegation from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) and the Department of Science and Technology (DST) will visit Cofimvaba in the Eastern Cape on a fact-finding mission ahead of the implementation of alternative sanitation technologies in the area.
The team is visiting the area after the signing of an agreement between the DST and the BMGF in March this year. The aim of the partnership is to demonstrate cutting-edge sanitation technologies in Cofimvaba as a response to sanitation backlogs in the country.
Through the DST-BMGF partnership, the DST wants to provide alternative, non-sewer sanitation solutions to communities in South Africa that are unlikely to have access to waterborne sanitation in the short or medium term.
The DST-BMGF will be accompanied by the team that developed the sanitation technology.
The prototypes will be piloted in identified schools and communities in the Chris Hani District Municipality from early November, after which their performance, social acceptance and contribution to job creation, among other things, will be evaluated.
The DST has committed R30 million and the BMGF US$1 million for field tests on technologies developed as part of the BMGF's global Reinvent the Toilet Challenge. The challenge is aimed at improving sanitation provision in developing countries.
The DST-BMGF visit will provide the media with an opportunity to gain insight into how science and technology can provide solutions to socio-economic challenges in the country.
The site visit will be followed by a seminar in Pretoria on 30 October, at which the South African Sanitation Technology Demonstration Programme will be launched.
All media are invited.
Day 1 (Visit to three schools in Cofimvaba)
Date: 27 October 2014
Venue: Arthur Mfebe, Gando and Ntsingeni Junior Secondary Schools
Time: 12h00 – 15h00
Day 2 (Visit to peri-urban areas)
Date: 28 October 2014
Venue: Wilsonia Office at Newlands, East London
Time: 11h00 – 13h30
Enquiries:
Veronica Mohapeloa
Cell: 082 882 3818
David Mandaha
Cell: 072 126 8910
