The Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS) knows and accepts that access to dignified sanitation is a basic human right. In this regard the DWS has two sanitation grants that seek to eradicate the sanitation backlog in the country, namely the Rural Household Infrastructure Grant (RHIG) and the Bucket Eradication Grant.
Further the department has taken a decision to focus attention on the households using the bucket toilet as a means of sanitation. Accordingly, priority is on households using such sanitation in the formal areas. The intention is to replace all such systems with waterborne sanitation by December of 2015.
The department is also developing an implementation plan that will address the informal areas in the next financial year: 2016/17.
In the rural areas the programme attends to formalised areas/villages. Municipalities continue with their responsibilities for water and sanitation needs of informal areas until such time as the plan for the formalisation of the areas or resettlement of such areas is confirmed.
As things stand the provinces with the highest sanitation backlogs are the Free State, Eastern Cape, Limpopo, KwaZulu-Natal and the Northern Cape.
The estimated cost for the eradication of the general sanitation backlog is R50 billion.
For more information contact:
Sputnik Ratau
Cell: 082 874 2942
