Access to adequate sanitation is fundamental to personal dignity and security, social and psychological well‐being, public health, poverty reduction, gender equality, economic development and environmental sustainability. Poor sanitation promotes the spread of preventable diseases such as diarrhoea and cholera, places stress on the weakened immune system of HIV positive people and has a major impact on the quality of life of people living with Aids.

According to the World Health Organisation, improved sanitation reduces diarrhoea death rates by a third, encourages children( particularly girls) to stay in school and has persuasive economic benefits. Every USD1 invested in improved sanitation, translates into an average return of USD9.24.

The right to sanitation has been affirmed internationally. In July 2010, the United Nations( UN) General Assembly passed a resolution declaring“ the right to safe and clean drinking water and sanitation as a human right that is essential for the full enjoyment of life and all human rights”. In September 2010, the UN Human Rights Council reaffirmed this with a resolution confirming the right to water and sanitation as legally binding in international law.

Sanitation includes infrastructure to remove human waste safely, for example technology options such as ventilated improved pit latrines or waterborne sanitation, as well as ongoing services, for example emptying pit latrines and supplying water for flushing waterborne toilets. Sanitation also refers to practices or behaviours and includes the promotion of sanitation, as well as health and hygiene education in households and communities. In terms of the latter, personal, family and cultural hygiene practices and habits are important to consider.

In recognition of the challenges of the bucket system, the White paper on water supply and sanitation policy was

published in 1994, at a time when it was estimated that 21 million South Africans did not have access to adequate sanitation facilities. In 1995, the National Sanitation Task Team was constituted to co‐ordinate sanitation interventions among the national departments and to eradicate sanitation backlogs. In 1996, the Department of Water and Sanitation( DWS) launched the National Sanitation Programme, which aimed to eradicate the sanitation backlog by 2010; and in 2002, the National Sanitation Programme Unit was created within DWS. However, almost 10 years on, and millions of people in both rural and urban areas are still forced to use wholly inadequate means of sanitation daily. According to the 2010 Millennium Development Goals Country Report for South Africa, as of March 2009, more than 10 million households( 77 %) had access to sanitation. Between 2001 and 2008, 73 % of the population had access to basic sanitation services and the basic sanitation backlog was reduced to 27 %. By 2010, the sanitation backlog is estimated to have been reduced to 21 % from a high of 52 % in 1994.

According to the 2010 General Household Survey released by Statistics South Africa in May 2011, a“ functioning basic sanitation facility” is defined as a“ flush toilet connected to a public sewerage system or septic tank or a pit latrine with ventilation pipe”. As of 2010, the total national access to basic sanitation was 70 % of households. Nationally, 2.5 million households were using an unventilated pit latrine, 110 000 households were using the bucket system and 727 000 households had no toilet at all. According to the survey, the highest proportion of individuals having to do without toilet facilities or having to use bucket toilets is in the Eastern Cape( 16.3 %), Limpopo( 8.6 %), Northern Cape( 6.8 %) and Mpumalanga( 6.6 %). PA

The cholera virus under a microscope.

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