Dear Editor
The Department of Water and Sanitation’s World Toilet Day “celebrations” in the Northern Cape is a slap in the face of Douglas residents.
Instead of focusing on the eradication of bucket toilets, the Department has been handing out toilet rolls and toilet brushes to residents who don’t have toilets!
The Department’s programme (see here) scheduled for Breipaal and Bongani earlier this week, shows this intention. Some residents reported receiving sanitizer and soap bars too.
The DA believes that the money spent on handouts should have been spent on the eradication of bucket toilets.
The DWS’s spokesperson, Sputnik Ratau indicated earlier this year that there are still between 12 000 and 14 000 bucket toilets in total, in the Free State and the Northern Cape.
Yet this department sees fit to hand out toilet brush sets to people without toilets.
This is the same department that failed to spend an allocated amount of R243 million in the previous financial year, to eradicate bucket toilets in the Free State and Northern Cape.
The DA will ask our public representative in parliament to request a breakdown of the funding for the Toilet Day campaign and to follow-up on the eradication of bucket toilets in Douglas and the rest of the province.
Regards
Lemfvia van Niekerk, Cllr
Siyancuma Municipality
