R5bn needed to flush out bucket toilets

Minister of Water and Sanitation Nomvula Mokonyane told Parliament that it would take more than R5 billion to replace SA's remaining bucket toliets with something better. File picture: Cindy Waxa

Minister of Water and Sanitation Nomvula Mokonyane told Parliament that it would take more than R5 billion to replace SA's remaining bucket toliets with something better. File picture: Cindy Waxa

Published Jul 22, 2015

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Johannesburg - There are fewer than 200 000 bucket toilets left but it will take more than R5 billion to replace them with something better.

Minister of Water and Sanitation Nomvula Mokonyane told Parliament there were 58 453 bucket toilets left in formal areas and 140 748 households using bucket toilets in informal 217 informal settlements.

She estimated it would cost R975.339 million to replace the toilets in formal areas (that’s about R16 685 per toilet).

“All buckets in the formal areas will be eradicated by end of the financial year,” she said.

The count in informal areas was a “moving target” and would take longer to address.

“The department estimates that… a further R4.3bn over the next four years will be required to address informal settlements,” she said. That’s about R30 550 per household.

Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal and Limpopo had nothing on the minister’s lists for either formal or informal areas, and no informal settlements listed.

Mpumalanga and the Western Cape had nothing listed for formal areas.

Free State had the biggest problem in formal areas with 38 526 buckets, while the Western Cape had the biggest problem in informal areas, with 59 932 households affected.

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The Star

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