Parliament - At least 230 000 households were still using the bucket system, Water and Sanitation director-general Margaret-Ann Diedricks said on Wednesday.
Briefing Parliament’s portfolio committee on water and sanitation, Diedricks informed MPs the use of the bucket toilet system was still widespread.
The department confirmed that 88 127 households in formal areas and 140 000 households in informal areas were using bucket toilets as a form of sanitation.
The figures were expected to climb, however, as authorities in four provinces have not confirmed the number of households still relying on the bucket system.
“It may of course go higher but we are waiting for KwaZulu Natal, Limpopo, Mpumalanga and Gauteng to confirm,” said Diedricks.
She said reports from provincial authorities showed the Western Cape had the highest number of households using the bucket system with 59 932 households relying on this form of sanitation, followed by the Free State with 46 758. The Eastern Cape had 23 958 households using bucket toilets, while the Northern Cape stood at 5350 and the North West province at 4 150.
A total of 185 projects aimed at eradicating the bucket system were currently underway across the country’s nine provinces.
ANA