Municipality’s bucket eradication programme to create jobs

BY CHARL BOSCH - FEBRUARY 24, 2015

Nelson Mandela Bay Metro Municipality Infrastructure and Engineering Executive Director, Walter Shaidi, has said that over 2 500 job opportunities, and 1 500 permanent jobs, will be created with the construction of proper ablution and sanitation facilities, as part of the metro’s bucket system eradication programme.

Speaking at a ceremony to celebrate the opening of the first of 470 of 650 facilities in Khayamnandi near Despatch, Shadi said that a total of R30-million had been budgeted for the project with another R100-million having been received from provincial government.

He also added that a total of 2 892 sites had been setup for the construction of facilities, with a further 1 170 having been identified in KwaNobuhle (470), Wells Estate (350) and Motherwell (350).

“This programme will entail a three pronged approach that will in total cost approximately R500 million over three to four years,” Shadi told RNews in an interview after the event, which was also attended by Nelson Mandela Bay Metro Municipality Executive Mayor Benson Fihla, and Deputy Minister for Water and Sanitation, Pam Tshwete.

“The first phase is a communal ablution facility phase that will be erected in densely populated informal settlements. The next phase is the construction of house slabs, with a closed flushing ablution facility while the beneficiary is waiting for the housing subsidy to be approved. The last phase will be a complete house with running water and a working ablution facility. All these phases are expected to run concurrently, depending on the visibility. At the launch the Municipality will unveil the house slab with a closed flushing ablution facility phase,” he said.

Addressing the media shortly after cutting ribbon to the area’s first flushing toilet, Minister Tshwete said that the onus would be on community members to preserve the structures and not to have them vandalised.

She also added that the department is planning on launching similar programs with the eventual aim of eradicating the use of the bucket system in other effected areas of the province.

“I had a meeting with the Minister (of Water Affairs Nomvula Mokonyane) and the provincial structure, where we decided that we wanted to do integrated planning when building houses or providing toilet,” said the Minister.

“We said during our Water and Sanitation meeting, that Nelson Mandela Bay needs to be prioritised. This is phase one out of three. We have built 8 000 toilets which would then be followed by the construction of a house. People would no longer have to go out as the toilets would be inside the house”.