HEALTH AND SANITATION
31
WASSUP Diepsloot fights
for public health and safety
in the face of adversity
In one of the most densely populated areas of Diepsloot, Johannesburg, officials
conservatively estimate there is one communal toilet, tap and drain for every 39
households. To make matters worse, the government and local authorities do not
regularly maintain and repair those facilities, further endangering public health
and safety.
By Mike Flenniken
Since being created in 2008 as an outcome of the
UN Millennium Development Goals-inspired Global
Studio programme, community collective WASSUP
Diepsloot – the Water, Amenities, Sanitation
Services Upgrade Programme – has led the effort
to maintain water and sanitation facilities in this
locality through an ongoing cycle of survey, fix
and repair work, in constant consultation with
residents. However, due to relentlessly increasing
demand and financial challenges, WASSUP can no
longer afford to lead the programme, and faces
closure unless a sustainable framework for future
operations can be put in place.
In response to this deadlock, WASSUP and the
Johannesburg-based non-profit Sticky Situations recently
released a report highlighting the group’s efforts over the
past decade, calling for Johannesburg’s government to
take over the Diepsloot programme with a view toward
implementing it in other settlements in the city.
The report, Water Loss & Sewerage Leaks, Environmental
& Health Crisis, was released on 28 March, and points
out that of the estimated 25 000 registered shacks
in Diepsloot Extension 1 – Diepsloot’s most densely
populated area – there are only 642 communal toilets, or
roughly one toilet, tap and drain for every 39 households.
The toilets are situated alongside uneven gravel
pathways and clearings among the settlement’s shacks,
often overflowing into the surrounding street and creating
additional health and safety hazards.
The report lays out three goals: to highlight the work
being done due to lack of government support and
investment; to encourage the City of Johannesburg to
take greater financial and technical responsibility for
October 2019 Volume 25 I Number 8
maintaining the services; and for the City to adopt
and further adapt the people-centred programme
WASSUP has developed over the past ten years.
Sticky Situations director Jennifer van den Bussche
says support from international organisations,
including Healthabitat O/S, the British Plumbing
Employers Council (BPEC), the Australian High
Commission in South Africa, the WorldSkills
Foundation, and IAPMO (along with its International
Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Foundation), helped
create and sustain the momentum that led to
the report.
“This is something that has built up over time,
and we’re really using the report – after over a
decade of working in this field – to put in a final
push to private sector and government sectors to
say, ‘Come on, guys, we’re losing a billion litres
of water a year; that’s costing everybody money’.
We need the WASSUP initiative embedded into
government programmes, but we also need private
sector support in acknowledging the fact that if we
don’t all put our heads together and combine our
various resources and knowledge, we don’t really
accomplish anything or make the world a better
place for anyone,” says van den Bussche.
WASSUP team members, many of whom live in
Diepsloot, have first-hand knowledge of the
health crisis.
In the spirit of the sharing
of unique experiences
that shape the plumbing
industries in our
respective nations, the
following article looks
at a report calling on the
South African government
to take a greater role in
maintaining water and
sanitation facilities in
Diepsloot. Written by
IAPMO Staff Writer,
Mike Flenniken, it is the
next in a regular series of
similar articles that will
run in Plumbing Africa.
Russ Chaney
IAPMO CEO
“Sometimes toilets and taps are not working for
months, and even years,” says team member Lerato
Monama. “If we don’t fix them, no one will.”
“This our home where we live; our families are
here, we work here, we play here, our children go
to school here,” adds team member Luckie Manyisi.
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