File Image by Bongiwe Mchunu
The release of Equal Education’s (EE) report on access to water and toilets in Limpopo schools has revealed “frustratingly slow” progress has been made in three years of its initial inspection and emphasised the lack of political will to make the necessary changes to ensure all school learners had access to clean and safe toilets.
This report was an update of EE’s 2017 report Dikolo tša go Hloka Seriti, meaning Schools Without Dignity. The organisation’s most recent visits to inspect the infrastructure at a sample of 15 schools in February 2020 assessed whether the water supply and the state of the toilets had changed over time.
“The findings of this report highlight that having access to water and sanitation contributes to the learning experience of learners in school. The lack of access, or even limited access, to safe, proper and sufficient water and sanitation facilities can have negative consequences, including learning time lost to absenteeism; feelings of discomfort, particularly for girl learners; and inability to perform key hygiene practice,” the report stated.
A comparison of the water and sanitation conditions in the same 15 schools shows small improvements between 2017 and 2020, the organisation found.
Three years later, the 2020 findings showed that the number of schools with plain pit toilets as their only form of sanitation had reduced from nine to six, and schools without water access had reduced from four to two.
This is the general trend with school infrastructure delivery in South Africa: there is progress but it is very slow - too slow, the report found.
EE’s follow-up report highlighted that progress had been frustratingly slow and emphasised the lack of political will from the Limpopo Department of Education in fulfilling its Constitutional obligations to the school community.
“The right for children to have access to a reliable supply of safe drinking water, and enough safe toilets is urgent and should be realised immediately! Limpopo schools still lack basic amenities, such as functioning taps, boreholes, and water tanks to promote health and hygiene.
“Our report further highlights that having access to water and toilets contributes to the learning experience of pupils in school. The lack of access, or even limited access, to safe, proper and sufficient water and sanitation facilities can have negative consequences, including learning time lost to absenteeism and feelings of discomfort, particularly for girl pupils,” the organisation said.
As part of the Komape court case, where Michael Komape drowned in a pit latrine at school, the Limpopo DoE’s revised implementation plan to fix school sanitation was released in December 2021. This was a significant win, EE said, because previous plans were quite vague and had unreasonable time-frames.
According to EE, this plan provides:
- A breakdown of each school’s priority level based on whether the school relies solely on plain pit toilets (priority 1), has inadequate appropriate sanitation (priority 2), or only needs minor refurbishments (priority 3);
- The existing sanitation projects already planned for each school (in cases where a school requires sanitation upgrades);
- Time-frames by when this should be done;
- The infrastructure programme that each school is under, for example, the Accelerated School Infrastructure Delivery Initiative (ASIDI) or the Sanitation Appropriate for Education (SAFE) Initiative;
- The implementing agent assigned to each school (implementing agents are the middlemen who build schools for the government using public funds); and
- The cost breakdown of these projects.
EE said that it will monitor the implementation plan of the Limpopo DoE very closely to ensure that the deadline for such bold promises was adhered to strictly.
“Access to water and sanitation does not end at access. This access must be safe.
“Safe and reliable drinking water and safe and reliable toilets where there is no risk that the walls will collapse on pupils. Pupils have waited long enough for relief. It is time for dignified school sanitation to be the norm in all Limpopo schools,” the organisation stated.
IOL