Social Justice Coalition: Join the Queue for Sanitation, Safety and Dignity

The Social Justice Coalition (SJC) is a community-based activist movement that promotes active citizenship, accountable governance and the advancement of the social justice obligations and rights enshrined in the Constitution. These include the protection of the rights of every person in South Africa to be free from violence (both public and private), as well as the rights to decent housing and sanitation.

Over the past few months, the SJC has been working in Khayelitsha’s informal settlements to gauge the primary concerns of residents with regards to safety and security. We have largely focused on RR section - a densely populated area alongside the N2 - where a lack of basic services serves to exacerbate the already high incidence of violent crime and poor health.

One of the main concerns of the community is overwhelmingly that of access to clean and safe sanitation facilities. There are too few clean and functioning toilets and safe water sources, drainage is inadequate, and refuse collection irregular. As a result, waterborne diseases and parasites, including gastroenteritis, worms and diarrhoea, are increasingly rampant. These illnesses serve to intensify the effects of HIV/AIDS in the community, particularly so with diahorrea amongst young children. Getting to and using toilets - one of the most unspoken of our basic human rights - can be life threatening. Residents are often forced to walk long distances down unlit “pathways” that wind between shacks, through backyards and sometimes across busy roads; and are frequently robbed, hit by cars, beaten and raped. In many cases residents are forced to use the alternative of relieving themselves in bushes on the outskirts of the community, increasing the vulnerability to crime and exposure to disease of both themselves and their communities.

A recent study (Water Dialogues South Africa: 2009) shows that 500 000 people in the City of Cape Town’s informal settlements have no access to basic sanitation (non-bucket toilets), and just under half of those have no access to sanitation whatsoever. Furthermore, the City’s informal settlements are grossly under staffed and resourced – 2.6% of the city’s Water and Sanitation personnel work in these areas, which directly receive only 1.7% of water services revenue. Informal settlements currently serve as home to at least 20% of the City’s population.

22 March 2010 is International World Water Day, with this year’s theme being “clean water for a healthy world”. An international campaign is being held around the world on this day which will entail participants symbolically queuing behind a toilet in solidarity with the 2.5 billion people globally who do not have access to a safe and clean toilet. In doing so, participants will attempt to set a Guinness world record for the world’s longest queue for a toilet (albeit queues on different continents).

The SJC will be hosting the South African event in Cape Town on the Sea Point Promenade (opposite the SABC studios) on  Saturday, 20 March at 10h00, to draw attention to both the international initiative and the challenges faced by residents in South Africa’s informal settlements. Participants from across the city will join a “queue” outside one of Sea Point’s public toilets. These are cleaned and maintained regularly, well lit, and often provide security personnel for safety. This is in stark contrast to Khayelitsha’s public toilets, which are sparsely located and never cleaned, nor provided with the luxuries of toilet paper or a simple toilet seat. On display will be an exhibit of photos of sanitation facilities in Khayelitsha, as well as mock ups of existing sanitation facilities in informal settlements.

We would like to request that your organisation:

• Endorse the event and commit to sending mmbers and leaders to participate;
• Consider signing the attached petition which will be circulated for the next two months, beforebeing submitted to the Mayor of Cape Town;
• Invite other organizations and individuals concerned with social justice and underdevelopment 12. in poor informal settlements to attend.

For more information or enquiries please contact us on gavinsilber@gmail.com or 0213618160.

See you in the queue!