As we observe World Toilet Day, Shenilla Mohamed, Executive Director of Amnesty International South Africa said:
“The government must eradicate all pit latrines in schools and ensure that all learners have access to safe and hygienic water and sanitation facilities.”
“Pit latrines remain one of the biggest risks to the health and safety of pupils across South Africa schools due to poor planning in prioritizing. Authorities must fix the toilet crisis in South African schools to make sure that pupils learn in a safe environment, including making sure that there is hygienic water and sanitation to help them prevent diseases such as COVID-19. Fix South Africa’s poor education infrastructure.”
Background
In February, Amnesty International released a report highlighting that, out of 23,471 public schools, 4,358 still had only illegal pit latrines for sanitation and 37 schools had no sanitation facilities whatsoever. According to our joint survey, 47% of respondents across three provinces indicated that schools in their area had pit toilets. Eastern Cape scored the worst, with 63% of respondents indicating that at least some schools still had pit toilets. In Limpopo, 59% still had schools with at least some pit toilets. In Gauteng, 14% still had at least some pit toilets.
World Toilet Day is an official United Nations international observance day on 19 November to inspire action to tackle the global sanitation crisis. Worldwide, 4.2 billion people live without “safely managed sanitation.”
Amnesty International South Africa’s campaign, Right To Water: Turn On The Tap, calls on the government to publicly commit to providing equal access to water for everyone – now and always.
Take action here #TurnOnTheTap.
FOR MORE INFORMATION OR TO REQUEST AN INTERVIEW, PLEASE CONTACT:
Nabeelah Khan, Media and Communications Officer, Amnesty International South Africa: +27 (0) 64 890 9224; nabeelah.khan@amnesty.org.za
