Asivikelane Initiative: Week 3 Results

Apr 22, 2020 | Blog, Weekly Covid19 Updates

Asivikelane has grown to 135 informal settlements and this week we add 5 non-metro towns to the 5 metros where we are already monitoring water, sanitation and refuse removal.

As you will see in the attached results, access to water has improved in recent weeks.
But the cleaning of communal toilets remains at crisis proportions and if left unaddressed could contribute significantly to the spread of the Covid-19 in metro and non-metro informal settlements.

In some settlements residents report that toilets have not been cleaned since the start of the lockdown or even further back.In Cape Town, eThekwini, Buffalo City and Johannesburg the repair of broken toilets and insufficient numbers of toilets is also a problem.
Residents often clean toilets themselves, but without disinfectant and protective gear this poses a significant infection risk.
Toilet cleaning is an even larger problem in smaller towns, coupled with the fact that some residents don’t have access to municipal sanitation at all.

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