World Toilet Day was celebrated on 19 November, but mostly went by unnoticed by those who have running water and functioning toilets. But on the other side of spectrum it was a sombre day for about 3,5 billion people worldwide who lack access to safe sanitation services.
According to the World Toilet Day website “419 million people still practise open defecation, which spreads diseases that kill an average of 1 000 children under 5 every day”.
“This global crisis poses a threat to nature and everyone’s health, particularly women’s, girls’ and that of other vulnerable groups.”
Declared an official awareness day by the United Nations (UN) in 2013, World Toilet Day aims to raise awareness about the daily struggles poorer people face pertaining to clean water and sanitation and the health challenges such as bacterial infections, these challenges bring.
Paarl Post visited the department of water and sanitation’s (DWS) commemoration of World Toilet Day in Amstelhof in Paarl on 15 November, where officials spoke about the importance of hygiene and access to water and sanitation.
According to Jacob Ngo, deputy director of water and sanitation at the DWS, access to running water is a basic human right and people should access it within their neighbourhood whether it be in or outside homes.
According to him the Drakenstein was chosen as this year’s venue due to the municipality’s success rate on supplying running water and sanitation to large groups within the municipality. According to the latest census results 96,7% of dwellings have flushed toilets connected to sewerage and 88,6% has access to piped water within the Drakenstein Municipality.
In all, 89,2% had weekly refuse disposal services and 97,9% access to electricity.
Although access to toilet facilities was the main theme, what came through clearly was that good hygiene encourages health and wellness. Also discussed were illegal rubbish dumping and vandalism and their effects.
Sonja Frans, manager of solid waste at Drakenstein Municipality urged Amstelhof residents not to vandalise and report illegal dumping as they can have a direct impact on their health.
What also came up was the need to use water sparingly and leakages, which usually occur in toilets, need to be reported to the municipality immediately. This will help prevent another drought in years to come.
