Water, Sewage & Effluent November December 2018 | Page 40

Nokuthula Kubheka (left) and Thabani Mchunu of PID with one of the first pour flush toilets built in the Pietermaritzburg area.
Taking school sanitation seriously
Sanitation is a basic human right but there is still a backlog in South Africa,
which role players are trying to address. This is according to Jeanette
Neethling, environmental engineer at Partners in Development (PID). She
unpacks on this related to school sanitation.
By Ntsako Khosa
W
orking on sanitation-related
projects at PID for nearly
three years, her work
has revolved around testing and
evaluating solutions developed by
other colleagues as well as providing
guidance. “I managed a pilot project
of a school sanitation management
programme developed by director
Dave Still and researcher Bobbie
Louton through the Water Research
38
Commission (WRC). We assessed the
impact of the pilot programme over
the course of the school year and then
generated a series of lessons that will
contribute to long-term, effective
change in school sanitation through
proper management,” she says.
The project went on to be piloted
throughout the country at a larger
scale through Domestos and the
Department of Basic Education.
Water Sewage & Effluent November/December 2018
The constitution vs
implementation
Our
constitution
acknowledges
that sanitation is a basic human
right. Neethling believes that
acknowledging
the
importance
thereof is the first step to addressing
the
backlogs
experienced
in
South Africa and other countries.
“However, implementation proves
difficult due to barriers such as cost,
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