The eThekwini municipality in KwaZulu-Natal has embarked on a drive to eradicate pit toilets in the over 30 000 households in the metro which still have pit toilets.
In Dassenhoek, west of Durban, residents welcomed the installation of eco-friendly flushing toilets at their homes, the new toilets use 2 litres of grey water harvested rainwater or water in which washing was done.
It is also not tied to the city’s ageing sanitation network, but flushes effluent to underground cisterns.
Nomusa Mhlongo and Nontobeko Msomi say the new toilets are safer for their children.
“We used to be scared if children needed to use the pit toilet because accidents can happen, we endured stench for so many years. It was worse if your pit toilet is full you have to make arrangements to build another one. But now we are so happy with the new toilets that we are flushing them with water. For so many years we had to accompany our kids if they needed to use the toilet, but now the new ones are safe and there is no bad odour.”
eThekwini municipality spokesperson Lindiwe Khuzwayo explains, “We have about 30 000 pit latrines and our plan is to eradicate them, we believe everyone has a right to decent sanitation which is why we have began this alternative sanitation technologies putting in place eco-friendly toilets in every home to ensure that our residents have access to hygienic conditions for toilets purposes. In the last three months since April we have done more than 400 of these new technology toilets and our intention is to continue doing this until we have eradicated all the pit latrines in eThekwini.”
eThekwini municipality launches a process to eradicate pit toilets:
#sabcnews eThekwini municipality has embarked on a process to eradicate pit toilets. Over 30 thousand households still have pit toilets. The new toilets are being built below. pic.twitter.com/bn3nnaoyaJ
— Nonkululeko Hlophe (@Leko3) June 26, 2023
