Working to bring decent sanitation to all

their home or community.

Those who grow up in environments with abusive males tend to learn these habits and absorb them as normalised behaviour.

It is inescapable that we need to focus on the boy child if we hope to end the vicious cycle.

Love Life has this year launched the Boy-child Campaign to ensure that these ills identified and anticipated can be actively avoided.

Some initiatives that must be considered include these made by the Kenyan Gender Commission, which South Africa can benefit from:

◆ It is imperative to build a strong foundation through early childhood development. This is where the stereotypes must be tackled to ensure that society can raise progressive men.

◆ Linked to this is the need to create awareness of the rights of the child at grass-roots levels and to enforce parental responsibility on the education and wellbeing of the child. Many parents are not adequately involved in the shaping of their children’s formative stages. This is where value-based parenting either flourishes, or its absence is felt.

◆ There is a need to develop pro-family policies to strengthen the family unit as the right environment to nurture children. This is also linked to the enhancement of family planning initiatives.

◆ We need to stop all forms of child labour by ensuring compliance with the law.

◆ We must ensure that cultural rites such as circumcision are conducted in a way that does not instil values and freedoms likely to interfere with boys’ enjoyment of the right to be children and to enjoy a good education.

◆ We must direct bursary and other pro-poor strategies to the most deserving.

The issue of focusing on the boy child to fight gender-based violence is universal and must be tackled with ideas from across the world.

One hopes that by the time the 16 Days Campaign comes around again, we will be on a better footing to save the boy child from being a potential perpetrator of violence, especially against women and children.

◆ Ncube-Nkomo is the chief executive of New Love Life Trust SOUTH Africa joined the global community to commemorate World Toilet Day on November 19. This saw Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS) officials in various parts of the country rolling up their sleeves to raise awareness about the importance of decent sanitation in people’s lives.

You may ask what is the significance of decent sanitation? Besides the fact that it is there to improve the quality of human life, promote and protect environmental health, the one pivotal role of the use of toilets and proper sanitation system is to enhance the dignity of people.

The restoration of dignity for thousands of South Africans took centre stage when the DWS embarked on various activities to highlight the progress of the Bucket Eradication Programme (BEP) in formalised settlements across the country by March 2020.

Recently, DWS senior officials, led by Deputy Minister Pamela Tshwete and acting director-general Deborah Mochotlhi, presented an update on the BEP to the portfolio committee on water and sanitation.

The department told the portfolio committee that significant progress had been made and acknowledged that more work still needed to be done to quickly address the backlog in eradicating bucket toilets. The department indicated that it had replaced 3 319 and 224 buckets in the Eastern Cape and North West respectively. There was also outstanding work for 2018/19 in the Free State and Northern Cape,

Yes, government departments were mandated to provide basic services to the public, and therefore, it would be understandable if one argued that applause was the one gesture the DWS does not deserve.

With the challenges that the department tabled to the portfolio committee, such as water scarcity, which Tshwete said had prompted the department to relook alternatives, such as new innovations and more appropriate ways of disposing human excreta and treating sewage effluent, the progress should be acknowledged.

Tshwete said the Department of Science and Technology (DST) had indicated that there were new technologies and other solutions.

According to Tshwete, these technologies were of South African origin, cost effective and efficient.

She stated that her department was looking into them. Tshwete emphasised that flushing was not always possible, given the challenges of water shortages and drought in various parts of the country.

She said her department would reconsider the re-use of sludge for fertilisers and energy.

In addition, as the DWS continued to roll out the programme, it remained committed to adhering to the National Sanitation Policy of 2016, which was based on basic sanitation, basic sanitation facilities and basic sanitation service.

Basic sanitation is about the lowest cost appropriate system and refers to a natural resource protection facility, while basic sanitation service is about environmental sustainability, and safe removal of human waste, grey water and wastewater from premises.

Although it may seem the March 2020 deadline is far-fetched, progress has been made in eradicating the bucket toilet system, and this is something to take into cognisance.

◆ Maseko is a communicator at the Department of Water and Sanitation