WSU splashes out R4m for toilets and water on campus

WALTER Sisulu University’s Butterworth campus has spent in excess of R4-million paying for portable toilets in the past seven weeks due to the water crisis plaguing the area.

This happened while students were struggling for funding and was despite student representatives warning in August that the university needed its own borehole as a permanent measure against such a crisis.

The borehole would have fed existing water tanks on the campus.

Water outages as a result of low dam levels in the area have seen the university, with a population of about 2 000 people, cart in 25 VIP portable toilets while a water tanker delivered water twice a day.

The Dispatch was alerted to the excessive spending by concerned employees in the university.

The Dispatch called university’s former SRC president and current student Luyanda Tenge, Student Christian Organisation chairman Siphelo Mkhuzangwe and Pan Africanist Student Movement of Azania (Pasma) chairman Masomelele Nongadlela for comment.

The three have met with campus management, the maintenance team and student affairs officials after the local government elections where responses to the emerging water shortages were discussed.

Mkhuzangwe said: “As a result of the August meeting, we wrote a memo to the Department of Higher Education requesting funding for a borehole. The money was allocated and until today no borehole has been drilled.

“It is serious exploitation and questionable for a university that has financial difficulties to pay R3 000 a day for one toilet.”

The toilets also posed a health risk as they were packed next to each other for a prolonged period.

Nongadlela said in addition to the toilets, the university was spending R500 000 a month on water brought in by private trucks twice a day.

Tenge said: “The cost of the borehole would not have been far greater than the cost of paying for the portable toilets.”

The toilets have been supplied by Siphelele Lize, who told the Dispatch: “There are a total of 25 toilets on site which we delivered to the university on October 5. I am charging R3 000 a day per toilet and the money is for rendering services such as cleaning water and chemicals every day.

In her response, the university’s spokeswoman Yonela Tukwayo said: “Butterworth has a water crisis with water-shedding on set days; even B & Bs will give you water in a plastic dish on days when water is cut.

“We provide mobile toilets for staff and students on this campus. We also have tanks for drinking water.”