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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.
“We shall defeat none of the infectious diseases that plague the developing world until we have also won the battle for safe drinking water, sanitation and basic health care,” - Kofi Annan, former secretary-general of the United Nations
World Toilet Day on November 19 is a reminder of the stark reality for many pupils at schools in rural Limpopo, who have to attend a school without access to safe and decent toilets and clean water. These conditions persist despite the promulgation of the minimum uniform norms and standards for public school infrastructure (school infrastructure law) by Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga in 2013, which set clear deadlines by which schools must be provided with key infrastructure. What is more harrowing is that the school infrastructure law immediately banned plain pit latrines from schools, and yet pupils in Limpopo are still being subjected to using them.
READ: Eight dirty toilets for 1 000 people in Tshwane settlement
World Toilet Day is geared towards tackling the global sanitation crisis and achieving the UN's Sustainable Development Goal 6 (SDG6), which promises sanitation for all, despite demographic or social class, by 2030. A clean and safe environment is every child's and human's right, and access to clean water, clean toilets, and good hygiene practices is key to human dignity and a healthier life. Safe and reliable water supply and toilets are critical preconditions for providing a school environment that supports high-quality education and the healthy development of children.
The school infrastructure law requires that the department of basic education (DBE) and provincial education departments (PEDs) comply with the legally binding infrastructure deadlines. However, many PEDs have not complied with the first two school infrastructure law deadlines, which require that:
- By November 29 2016, all public schools in South Africa should have been provided with some access to water, electricity and acceptable toilets. School buildings made from inappropriate materials, including mud, asbestos, wood or zinc, should have been replaced.
- By November 29 2020, all public schools in South Africa should have been provided with enough classrooms, electricity, water, and proper toilets. Schools should also have been provided with electronic connectivity (telephones and internet) and perimeter security (such as fences).
The third infrastructure law deadline is fast approaching. This deadline requires that by November 2023, all schools are provided with libraries and laboratories. According to the DBE’s 2021 National Education Infrastructure Management System (NEIMS) report, about 70% of schools in South Africa do not have a library and 80% of schools in the country do not have a laboratory. But with basic infrastructure, such as reliable water supply and decent toilets yet to be provided to thousands of schools around the country, how will education departments comply with the 2023 deadline?
READ: You chose electricity and toilets instead of houses, families told
In February 2020, Equal Education (EE) and the Equal Education Law Centre (EELC) surveyed 15 schools in Ga-Mashashane, Limpopo, as a follow-up to our 2017 school visits and the report that detailed the findings of the visits, Dikolo tša go hloka seriti (“schools without dignity”).
The initial visits were a result of an outcry from Equalisers (EE pupil members) who insisted that many of the claims made by the Limpopo department of education (LDoE) and the DBE about progress in the provision of water and sanitation in Limpopo schools, did not match the reality within their schools. The 2020 follow-up visits were to monitor and assess the progress made since the initial visits, as well as to source information to be included in our supplementary affidavit for the Michael Komape court case, in which EE intervened as amicus curiae (a friend of the court). Our findings from the 2020 visits are detailed in our new report Tshedimošo mo dikolong tsa go hloka seriti (“A review of schools without dignity”).
A comparison of the water and sanitation conditions in the same 15 schools shows small improvements between 2017 and 2020.
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.
Our follow-up report highlights that progress has been frustratingly slow and emphasises the lack of political will from the LDoE 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.
As part of the Komape court case, the LDoE’s revised implementation plan to fix school sanitation was released in December 2021. This was a significant win because previous plans were quite vague and had unreasonable timeframes. 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);
- Timeframes 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 government using public funds); and
- The cost breakdown of these projects.
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. It is deplorable that the public must constantly remind public servants of their duty to serve. Dignity and accessibility must not have colour, demographic or class. Pupils have waited long enough for relief. It is time for dignified school sanitation to be the norm in all Limpopo schools.
Lebelo is a junior organiser at Equal Education.
