Sanitation programmes take time!

With the historic elections of 1994, official apartheid ended. The ANC was elected with a mandate - and the expectation - that they would deliver what the black population had so long been denied. High on the list for delivery for over 30 million people were jobs, housing, land, health care education and water. Sanitation was also important - but not high profile enough to always get a mention. To many people sanitation meant nothing less than a conventional flush toilet. Anything less was considered to be second rate - something inferior to what white people had previously enjoyed. How could a national sanitation programme be established - and how quickly could it ‘deliver’? Fairly significant amounts of funding was made available for community projects – and results were expected within a year or two. However, the national sanitation team has had to start work first on three key issues (and many others) to establish a national programme: • Establishing a policy • Improving political will • Building capacity to implement.