November 20, 2007
By Emily Visser
THE humble, often vilified, toilet is fast gaining international importance. Since 2001 a group of countries and organisations have been celebrating World Toilet Day on 19 November, to create awareness around the right to sanitation, taking care of public conveniences and teaching toilet hygiene.
This year the City of Johannesburg joined 44 other countries at the World Toilet Summit, held in New Delhi in November, to discuss global challenges to and solutions around public sanitation.
Johannesburg is the first municipality in the country to attend the summit and also the first to celebrate World Toilet Day this year. Gasant Dunn, the manager of the City's facilities management, maintenance and public conveniences unit, attended the summit. He says that in future it will be a big annual event for the City.
"Our [the City's] objective is to rope in all the other municipalities in the country, to find out what sanitation amenity problems they have and how these can be addressed."
The facilities management, maintenance and public conveniences unit is responsible for all public conveniences in the City and celebrated the day by handing out soap to users and giving information on proper hygiene at all its amenities. Dunn says that one of the biggest challenges is to change people's behaviour. "Part of the City's vision is to bring awareness about hygiene, the importance of washing hands and using the public facilities correctly."
Environmental distress
During the summit countries came up with a number of creative solutions, Dunn explains. These included a two-pit toilet system, already much in use in India. It takes 10 people two years to fill up one pit. Once a pit is filled, human refuse is diverted to the second pit. The contents of the full pit slowly dry out and over two years break down into composted manure that is used in agriculture and household vegetable gardens.
Creating awareness of the right to sanitation, and care for public conveniences
(Photo: Enoch Lehung, City of Johannesburg)
With the state of the environment on everyone's lips, it is worth noting that almost 95 percent of human excreta globally is discharged directly into the environment, either on land or in water, without being treated in an environmentally acceptable way.
International statistics from the World Health Organisation and the United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef) indicate that three billion people in the world today are without any form of improved sanitation; that means toilets are so bad, or shared by so many people that they cannot be regarded as proper sanitation.
Over a billion people are without any form of sanitation. And more than 1,5 million children die each year from water-borne diseases directly related to poor sanitation.
Brand new
Over the last three years the City has made a concerted effort to address its own needs. All 90 toilets in the inner city and surrounding areas as well as public conveniences at some of City Parks facilities were upgraded.
Some 14 toilets owned by the Metro Trading Company will be upgraded over the 2007/08 financial year, Dunn says. That company and City Parks are responsible for their own amenities but the facilities management, maintenance and public conveniences unit assists entities with upgrades so that the same standard of facilities and cleanliness can be maintained throughout the City.
"Our next step is to beautify the outsides."
Two new facilities were opened in Alexandra earlier this year. And the City is coming up with some clever ways to save costs and stop vandalism and theft. For example, the Alexandra facilities use solid granite slabs instead of basins and urinals are waterless. Facilities are locked overnight.
Joburg also upgraded and maintains two public bathhouses, one at the corner of Nugget and Anderson streets, the other at Edith Cavell Street, free of charge to residents. Inner city residents like Blessing Dube says she uses the facility in Edith Cavell Street every day because her flat in Hillbrow has no water, and she would be lost without this service.
Since it has undertaken the upgrades, the City has managed to keep an eagle eye on upkeep, and Dunn says vandalism has been reduced by between 40 and 60 percent.
The City employs 160 permanent staff and weekly spot checks are done by the operations manager, Ali Seshoene, throughout the city. But Johannesburg continues to replace toilet seats on a weekly basis - not because of theft but because the plastic seats are broken when people stand on them instead of sitting, Seshoene says.
Basins and taps are stolen from time to time, and the stainless steel toilets are sometimes used to make fires in, especially in winter. "It is a long and ongoing process of education and upgrades," Dunn believes. "The appreciation is there, it is the minority that's doing the damage."
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