Extreme poverty cannot end until clean water, toilets and hygiene are a normal part of daily life for everyone, everywhere. It is without a doubt that everyone must have sustainable sanitation, alongside clean water and handwashing facilities, to help protect and maintain our health security and stop the spread of deadly infectious diseases such as Covid-19, cholera, and typhoid.
On November 19, the world commemorates World Toilet Day, which is an annual global event organised by United Nations Water to raise awareness of the crucial role that sanitation plays in reducing diseases and creating healthier communities.
Hence, we say water is life and sanitation is dignity.
Dignity is the recognition of the inherent worth and value of every human being. Humanity’s birthright was silenced by apartheid’s capitalist and patriarchal paradigm, which devalued, fragmented and destroyed human beings. The earth, air and water that sustain life became commodities to exploit for profit.
It is for this reason, SA’s democratic constitution reinstated dignity as its first founding value and as a substantive right in the Bill of Rights. The constitution’s revolutionary commitment to dignity, equality and social justice has the potential to transform old fault-lines of political, economic and social power.
The disaggregated statistics reveal that those who lack most rights, including water and sanitation in informal settlements or schools, are those who were historically deprived of their rights. They remain those who are black and poor. Unequal power relations relegate women and girls to being the "bearers of water". They cook, clean and care for children, the elderly, those with disabilities and those who fall ill.
But the truth is, there is no blanket solution to helping people get clean water and toilets. A rural community suffering from drought and poor infrastructure will face very different obstacles to an urban community vulnerable to flooding.
To date, one in four people don’t have a decent toilet. People often have no choice but to go outside – increasing the risk of the spread of deadly diseases such as diarrhoea.
But, the question is how can everyone lift themselves out of poverty without proper sanitation?
By sanitation, we refer primarily to the sanitation value chain in relation to human waste. A toilet is used for urinating and defecating and is designed in such a way that human waste does not get in contact with the user. Safe containment deals with how the human waste is stored, for example, in a tank or channelled to a sewage network.
When toilets are connected to a tank, we refer to it as onsite sanitation; human waste is collected till the tank is filled and then emptied – either manually or mechanically using tankers. In the case of a sewer system, the human waste is transported through a piped network to a sewage treatment plant where it is treated and where effluents are up to a standard for safe disposal or reuse. In most cases, in rural areas onsite sanitation facilities are used.
The unsafe management of any of these aspects would consequently get human waste into the environment and in contact with people. However, World Toilet Day 2021 is commemorated under the theme “valuing toilets”.
This year the campaign draws attention to the fact that toilets – and the sanitation systems – are underfunded, poorly managed or neglected in many parts of the world. This has devastating consequences for health, economics and the environment, particularly in the poorest and most marginalised communities.
Hence, I believe that working together we can transform lives. We must actively encourage collaborations, so that many voices can be heard and ideas can spread. Together we achieve so much more.
Also, the government needs to expand access to safe toilets. We need a diverse and adaptive set of solutions and interventions that aim to tackle varied nature of challenges impacting on vulnerable groups.
To ensure a more co-ordinated approach to water and sanitation management, planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation, the department of water and sanitation developed the national water and sanitation master plan, which points out the priority actions required until 2030 and beyond to ensure water security and equitable access to water and sanitation services for all.
Therefore, working together is imperative to achieve National Development Plan 2030 goals by involving the private sector and business. To enforce operations and maintenance, intensify community participation, and credible plans at all levels to address the sanitation challenges.
Building toilets and sanitation systems that work in harmony with environment is important. When nature calls, we have to listen and act.
- Ngcobo is a senior communicator at the department of water and sanitation
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