New methodology for sanitation projects in Northern Province

In the Northern Province of South Africa sanitation projects have been dependant on government subsidies for the last seven years. This dependency has resulted in projects being implemented in bits and pieces. The first stage of implementation (Phase A) comprised of training committee members, builders, a storekeeper, quality controller and bookkeeper. Three demonstration toilets would also be built at this stage. In most cases, the project would have to wait for a period of over twelve months before moving on to Phase B (due to government funding delays), which entails construction of household latrines. During this time lapse trained committee members would be expected to remain with the skills that they had received during Phase A. The actual fact of the matter would be that most committee members would be forced to go elsewhere to use the gained skills to look for better jobs. By the time the project would be ready to go to phase B there would not be any trained committee members. In cases where members would be available, they would no longer be interested in the project as the time lapse would have caused them to lose interest. The strong ones who chose to continue with the project would have to be trained afresh as they would never have had the opportunity to practice the skills they had gained.