When the learners at Mzingisi Primary School and Graslaagte Primary School in Humansdorp return to school on Tuesday, July 18, they will be pleasantly surprised to see newly-built and upgraded ablutions, retrofitted with water-saving flushing systems which will see each school saving at least 150 000 litres of water per day.
Prince Matonsi, general manager of the Kouga Wind Farm Community Development Trust, said, due to the drought conditions in the Eastern Cape, it was important for communities to become familiar with water conservation and water use-reduction approaches.
To contribute towards water saving methods and to restore dignity at local schools, in March the Trust, in collaboration with their partners, the Department of Education, Kouga Municipality and Enviromould Pty Ltd as the service provider, launched the first phase of their water and sanitation project, which saw four schools in the Kouga region being retrofitted with water saving flushing systems.
These schools include Kruisfontein Primary, St Patricks Primary, Sandwater Primary and Lungiso High.
As part of the second phase of the project, Mzingisi Primary, Graslaagte Primary and Humansdorp High were also retrofitted with modern ablution systems.
The project has seen a total of 301 ablutions retrofitted at a cost of R6.2 million.
On July 7, the Trust handed over 12 newly-built toilets and 26 old toilets, which have been upgraded with a low-volume (2L flush) EaziFlush pedestal at Mzingisi Primary.
On the same day they opened the doors to 50 toilets which have been upgraded with a low-volume flush tank at Graslaagte Primary.
“The seven schools were identified as having the greatest need in terms of additional toilets, or getting non-functional toilets fixed,” said Matonsi.
He said that the flushing system installed only uses two litres of water, while the traditional toilet system uses 25 litres of water.
“Schools are among some of the high-water users in the district, understandably so because of the numbers involved. Through the water and sanitation project the low flush toilets will save the city 150 000 litres of water, which amounts to 3.2 million litres of water in a month, over a 21 day working period,” said Matonsi.
In addition to the installation of the water-saving flush systems, the Trust has also installed a minimum of three Jojo tanks at the two schools, which will be used as a low water usage washing station for the learners.
Furthermore, five classrooms, which include a room used for additional security and a fully kitted science laboratory, were built at Mzingisi Primary, and four new classrooms were built at Graslaagte Primary.
“This is a project which has not only created some jobs for local communities, but has also restored the dignity of our young people in these schools by ensuring that the schools have working toilets that are clean and which use far less water than the traditional flushing toilet system,” said Matonsi.
Jacques Rust, national sales and technical director for Enviromould Pty (a subsidiary of the Envirosan group) said that they had installed EaziWash hand wash stations close to the ablution facilities at the schools, to allow learners to wash their hands after using the toilets without wasting water.
He said that each tank is fitted with four hand wash basins and two uniquely designed soap bar dispensing units that grate the soap.
Rust further said that each hand wash outlet is fitted with an EaziTap which is a self-cleansing and self-closing valve which is activated by pushing the valve upwards with the back of one’s hand.
“Due to the self-closing design of this valve the results show that the Envirosan EaziTap valve uses between 100ml to 150ml of water, whilst conventional taps use between 2 000ml to 3 000ml. This is a massive potable water saving,” said Rust.
He said that as part of the installation of the new Eaziflush low-flush polymer toilets, each toilet was fitted with an incorporated child-seat lid ensuring that all learners from grade R onwards can safely and hygienically use the toilet facilities.
Rust said that among other things, they have also replaced the old, broken down and damaged toilet doors with a lightweight high density polymer door.
The door includes a pre-fitted, durable, non-corrosive dual operation polymer safety latch, which can be opened from the inside even if locked on the outside, and is designed to allow a simple and easy shift position on the inside to block entry to the toilet.
Thobeka Sibeko, principal of Matonsi Primary School, said that it is amazing how situations of crisis have resulted in a solution for the challenges they faced with water and sanitation, which the school is grateful for.
“More toilets mean more efficiency, less time wasted, more space and a healthier environment too,” said Sibeko.
“The water saving tanks for our large numbers of learners are very important, especially since our municipality is faced with a period of drought.”
She further said that with over 1 300 learners and 29 teachers, they are under-staffed and were in desperate need of additional classrooms.
“The Department of Education was meant to provide the school with new classrooms, and I have written to them requesting additional teachers. However, we are grateful that the Trust has filled in the gap to build new classrooms for us to make use of,” said Sibeko.
Elton Juba, principal of Graslaagte, said that the school’s toilets were in a disgusting state and they were embarrassed to have visitors use their toilets.
He said that since the community surrounding the school was filled with broken down infrastructure, the children had negative mindsets as they had nothing to look after.
“Clean toilets speak to the dignity of the learners and the staff. The learners will now have something new to look forward to once they return to school after their holidays,” said Juba.
He said that the project is a good example of how the public and private sector can work together.
“I would like to encourage the Trust and its partners to continue doing good work in the community. In hopeless situations they are changing lives and investing in futures,” said Juba.
