New system celebrates World Toilet Day
An innovative technology introduced in Ndakana village in the Eastern Cape, has improved access to quality sanitation, while saving water for the community there.
The Department of Science and Technology (DST) in collaboration with Amathole District and other various stakeholders, successfully launched an off-grid sanitation technology solution called the “low pour flush toilet system”, which already, is benefiting over a 120 households in Jerseyville extension, under Amahlathi Local Municipality. The system is low maintenance and uses only two litres of water for one flush. The toilet system was designed to have a look and feel similar to a full flush toilet but enables greater flushing efficiencies and robustness. Also on the day, another new system to help municipalities improve their turnaround times when attending to service delivery complaints called The Corrective Action Requests Report System (CARRS) was launched. CARRS is a webbased technology to improve the efficient management of water leaks designed by the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR).
The CARRS project is currently being piloted in eight district municipalities around the country and Amathole is one of them.
Executive Mayor of Amathole District, Nomfusi Winnie Nxawe also welcomed the initiative, saying it will improve the life of the people in the area.
“As as a water and sanitation mandated district municipality, we greatly appreciate such innovative efforts as shown by DST in collaborating with us in our quest to increase sanitation delivery to our communities. We are grateful that we get to put to test technology and ways in which it can be used to make the lives of our people better. As a drought-stricken district, including Amahlathi, this means that all this technology that is being provided by the national Department of Science and Technology here today will undoubtably assist us in servicing our people amidst challenges we face in water provision,” said Nxawe.
Speaking at the launch, the DST Deputy Director-General for Socio-Economic Innova- tion Partnerships, Imraan Patel, said the system represented a significant step up the sanitation ladder from VIP latrines which were associated with poor user experiences.
“What started as a pilot study with 20 household toilets has now grown with over 600 of these innovative sanitation systems implemented countrywide,” he said
Patel also added that while most South Africans aspired to have a flush toilet, it was technically challenging to deliver this sanitation technology to all unserved communities.
“The cost of constructing such infrastructure is high and there are limited resources, including valuable drinking water, to flush down the pan. Through innovative approaches, we are able to si- multaneously achieve our national development targets by providing communities with a technology that matches their aspirations while being economically and resource efficient,” said Patel.
Commenting on the significance of the system, Water Research Council ( WRC) Executive Manager Dr Jay Bhagwan said the low flush addressed the aspirations of many South Africans for flush toilets while overcoming the logistical challenges involved with standard sewerage and working within the limits of the country’s water resources.
“The pilot testing indicated high-user acceptance, significant water saving compared to full flush toilets and less trash disposal. This part of the new wave of innovators investigating alternative sanitation methods, bringing renewed attention to an oft neglected service,” he said.
The launch of the two projects precedes World Toilet Day tomorrow, 19 November. This is co-ordinated by the UN in collaboration with governments and relevant stakeholders to raise awareness about the thousands of people who still do not have access to proper sanitation around the world as a basic human rights need. The UN estimates that over 200 million people in the developing world still do not have access to safe drinking water and 2.5 billion cannot access proper sanitation. A large percentage of these is reported to be in Africa.