Blocked loos close down school

2003-03-05 08:27

Christi Naudé

Pietermaritzburg - Education took a back seat when a high school in Pietermaritzburg was shut down by the health department because not a single toilet for pupils was working.

A teacher at Nyonithwele Secondary said the sight of water and excrement seeping through the walls of the double-storey building in Edendale has been a bone of contention for months.

"With hepatitis, cholera and other water-borne diseases infecting people, the building has become unsafe." The school has 1 000 pupils and 40 toilets.

Principal Themba Hlongwane said he got permission from the education department to send the children home at 11:00 on Tuesday "because of the health hazard posed by the blocked toilets".

"As soon as the toilets are repaired, we will continue with school."

He said the broken sewerage system was reported "in writing" as early as September last year to the education department, but - despite promises that the public works department would fix it - nothing had been done.

Many not used to water-borne system

"The situation worsened about a week ago when the working toilets also became blocked."

While vandalism is part of the problem, he believes the pupils' ignorance of the "flush toilet" system is the reason for the malfunctioning of the sewerage system.

"We previously had a septic tank and many are not used to the new system."

According to a toilet expert, it is easier for groups to manage pit latrines than water-borne systems "where the problem lies six inches from your backside".

"Newspapers, plastic and sanitary pads all find their way down the narrow pipe. Some schools with water-borne systems actually asked for pit latrines because they're more manageable."

She said schools often locked toilets with broken cisterns, without having them repaired. "The rest of the toilets cannot cope with the amount of offloading and then the whole system needs to be bombed out."

Muzi Kubheka of the education department said they would have contractors on site by Wednesday.

- The Witness