THE first phase of the provincial Education Department’s multimillion rand school sanitation programme in the rural Transkei is nearing completion and dozens of schools have benefit ed from it.

Seventy schools are being supplied with water tanks and toilet structures as part of the R40 million first phase, expected to be completed soon.

According to Amatola Water, which is running the programme on behalf of the department, 676 schools had their toilet pits emptied.

“This is something big for the thousands of children, particularly in the rural Transkei, who will, for the first time, have access to clean and safe water and the use of toilet facilities.

“Most of these schools are in the Mthatha, Maluti, Dutywa, Cofimvaba, Queenstown and Middledrift areas,” said Amatola Water development facilitator Nomnikelo Botha.

She said previously there was no infrastructure in these schools and children had to use dongas as toilet facilities, making the areas susceptible to diseases like cholera.

Children from 93 schools in the Transkei are expected to have clean water and toilet facilities when the second phase is finished in March next year.

In the proposed R24m second phase, a further 23 schools will have new toilet facilities built for them and they would be provided with water tanks, while another 242 would have their toilet pits emptied . — DDR