Covid-19 health and safety regulations don't account for the poor.
Original photo by: Thato Mlambo - man next to his chemical toilet in Khayelitsha.
Covid-19 health experts have cautioned people to remain indoors, lead clean and hygienic lives, while social distancing in order to protect one’s self from being infected by the virus. However, such regulation practices cannot possibly be met for people who live in poor communities that share local water and toilet sources. These are the people that have to leave their houses on a daily bases and use unclean and unsanitary chemical toilets and in some cases pit latrines. More so, the governments announcement of the national shutdown made it all the more difficult for these people to reach local watering sources. If basic entities such a clean water is denied for such communities, then how are they meant to follow Covid-19 health regulations created by the government, when it is the government that ignores and overlooks their struggles.
South African society is largely an unequal one, and Covid-19 has only proven the extent of this inequality as the poor are left vulnerable against the fight of Coronavirus. 26 years of democracy under the ANC government and there is still an estimated figure of 49.2% of the country’s population that live in poverty. This is according to a survey by Statistics SA. South Africans represented through this figure live in rural or township areas, that both lack proper water and sanitation infrastructures. Insufficient attention is given to these poor communities as government has failed in providing sustainable living and sanitation infrastructures to thousands. Instead they only think of the poor when the country is faced with a pandemic, and service these communities with temporary and unreliable sanitation infrastructures. What about the years before the pandemic when there was time to create permanent solutions?
Furthermore, this pandemic has shed greater light on the extent of corruption that has overwhelmed this country for years. Reports have been circulating the global world about the mishandling of Covid-19 funds by alleged members within the ANC government. These reports highlight the hijacking of funds from the R500-billion relief package meant to provide food parcels for the poor, grant social relief to over 16 million beneficiaries, and provide for those whose salaries were affected. This scandal only scratches the surface behind the years of corruption South Africa has gone through. Meanwhile, the poor communities are left affected as they were supposed to benefit from such funds and tenders. And it is the very same people who are affected by this corruption that are now left vulnerable to Covid-19, as structures that were meant to help benefit their livelihood, is now money sitting in the pockets of corrupt men.
This is specific to the case of the Siyenza Group Project toilet scandal, that robbed government funds of over R600 million in a tender meant to build sustainable and safe toilets in rural and poor areas within the Eastern Cape. Such toilets were going to benefit schools and communities who were and are still currently using the bucket system. This project would have contributed to a safer and more hygienic manner of living under Covid-19 regulations. But due to the scandal these toilets were never built, leaving members of the affected communities digging their own pit latrines in shallow holes. Pit toilets are not only unsafe as reports have shown children drowning and dying in the structures, but they also pose a major health risk to people as they can become a breeding ground for harbouring diseases and bacteria. Without proper water sources, and toilet plans that are unhygienic, people who are subjected to live under such conditions have no defence in surviving the pandemic. How does the government expect these people to live under strict lockdown circumstances when the government has not delivered on promises for better sanitation infrastructure in poorer communities and schools?
Schools across South Africa have reopened early August to continue the academic year and the inequalities which exist within the education systems have been made more apparent in light of Covid-19. Government schools who could not implement online learning have students, especially Matric learners coming to school on a full week schedule including Saturdays and Sundays, to catch up on work they had missed these past 6 months. This worry’s the risk of Covid-19 as many poorer government schools lack basic sanitation infrastructures and hygienic bathroom facilities. More so, Government/public schools have twice the size of learners in a classroom compared to private schools, as they fit up to 30 to 40 learners in a class. These all pose high risk factors for Covid-19.
This introductory article serves to highlight many problems that exist within the poor communities of this country, and the lack of government action in implementing sustainable water and sanitation infrastructures. More so, how corruption has affected these people and how its contributed to their suffering. Explore the rest of this web page to read further articles explaining the different issues that exist within poorer communities of South Africa, and their fight against Covid-19.
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