Four other schools in the Mopani district have the same problem, with new toilets unusable due to problems with the water supply. Teachers at these schools say that the same thing is happening in their communities, as well - where villagers had to resort to relieving themselves in the bush.
Major sanitation projects, rolled out by the government has in the 1990s, helped the percentage of households without toilets or using the bucket system drop from 12.6% in 2002 to 6% last year. Ten years on, many of these toilets are now full. Phillip Chauke, chief director of monitoring and evaluation at the department of human settlement, says the problem is acute - but that his department is "rolling out a national programme" to help municipalities with their water and sanitation backlogs, he says. The treasury has provided R2-billion for this.
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