How can Water & Sanitation change Africa?
Presented by the Institute for Security Studies and the Pardee Center for International Futures. Read the full publication at the Institute for Security Studies website. Publication: African Futures Policy Brief No 1 – Taps and Toilets
Produced by Cape Town based film production company, Echo Ledge Productions, who are based in The Fringe.
16-million people in South Africa still live without access to a clean and safe toilet
by Gavin Silber of the Social Justice Coalition
There is no greater indictment of our collective failure to address historic injustice in South Africa than the presidency’s admission last week that 16-million people still live without access to a clean and safe toilet. Having just celebrated Human Rights Day, it is important not only to reflect on the rights we won almost two decades ago, but also on how — for a third of the population — basic rights to health, a clean environment, safety and dignity are violated daily.
Few families living in poor informal settlements or rural areas are left untouched by the broad impact of inadequate sanitation. Unhygienic conditions in and around toilets directly contribute to the widespread prevalence of illnesses such as diarrhoea and gastroenteritis.
Crime, particularly in urban slums, and too few functioning toilets render residents particularly susceptible to attack. People are assaulted, robbed, raped and murdered on the often arduous journey to relieve themselves. Others are hit by cars while crossing busy, unlit roads in search of a toilet (informal settlements have some of the highest pedestrian mortality rates in the country).
Read the full article here