Human Settlements, Water and Sanitation deputy minister, David Mahlobo, has implored the community of Lubumbe Village in Bizana to take ownership of the new technology infrastructure installed in their school, and guard it against vandalism.
Mahlobo made the plea during the unveiling of a new sanitation technology at Khanyisani Primary School on International Nelson Mandela Day, July 18.
“Community members have a responsibility to take charge of the environment they live in and guard everything around them, particularly the infrastructure that the government has built to restore their dignity.”
“No-one will come from another village to vandalise your infrastructure; it is people among you, and you cannot look away when your infrastructure is vandalised. As communities, we need to have an active structure that will work with law enforcement agencies to nip this scourge in the bud,” said Mahlobo.
He further committed the Department of Water and Sanitation in the Eastern Cape to mobilise all the needed resources from like-minded organisations to check the availability of ground water in Lubunde village, and Khanyisani Primary School in particular.
“While we are still working to ensure that villages in Bizana benefit from the Ludeke Dam, we need to work on short-term measures that will benefit the learners in this school and village. That is why we have been calling our stakeholders to assist us with boreholes in the interim,” he added.
Mahlobo also applauded the Water Research Commission (WRC) for the outstanding sanitation programme they are implementing in rural schools and called for it to be extended to more schools.
WRC, through its sanitation technology acceleration programme, continues to demonstrate appropriate next-generation sanitation technologies in schools, with an aim of strengthening the school sanitation toolbox by using evidence-based demonstration of research, development, and innovation outputs.
Some of the reported outcomes from the learners and teacher experiences include improved attendance in school, particularly for young girls who would ordinarily stay away from school when experiencing their menstrual cycle.
In 2019, a partnership between the Department of Science and Innovation (DSI), the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and the WRC, issued a call for innovators in the sanitation industry to be matched with internationally reinvented toilets.
The objective was to develop, pilot, localise and bring to market sanitation systems for local communities, schools, and rural and peri-urban households.
The NEWgenerator modular off-grid sewerage treatment system treats sewage using an anaerobic membrane bioreactor, a nutrient capture system, and electro-chlorination to produce treated water, biogas, and liquid fertiliser.
The treated water can be recycled for toilet flushing to reduce external water demands and a solar system can be used to provide power required for the off-grid operation.
The system can be easily implemented in communities or institutions without adequate water access or unreliable water supply.
