Matheus Hamutenya
Karasburg-It is a win-win situation for rural areas in Karasburg East Constituency as residents will not only get toilets, but be paid to erect them, while government will in the process build more toilets with the little funds available.
About N$2.3 million has been earmarked for rural sanitation for both Karasburg East and Berseba constituencies under the Harambee Prosperity Plan (HPP), and the program to erect these toilets in Karasburg East is set to kick off soon.
Karasburg East Councillor Dennis Coetzee said consensus has been reached to have the money split into half for each constituency, whereby 70 rural toilets will be built in each constituency.
He said he is happy more rural people can be catered for through this program, adding that this was made possible after the initial tender was rejected by the minister for being too costly.
“Our previous calculations when we went on tender was that only 44 toilets could be built, and this was shot down by the minster as it is expensive, but with this program we can now build 70 toilets,” he said.
He said the new method whereby each household will be tasked with setting up their own toilet, is not only cheaper, as about N$15 000 will be spent on one toilet compared to N$26 000 per toilet had a contractor been roped in, but will also empower the communities with the little money they will get for setting up their own toilet.
“Each household will be responsible to erect their toilet if they can – it is just digging a hole and assembling the toilet, and by doing this we are also empowering every household as they will get N$2 000 – N$4 000 for their labour,” he said.
Coetzee indicated the prefabricated toilets will be acquired from a South African company and training will be conducted to teach residents how to set up the toilets before the program kicks off, and he is hopeful that by August all toilets would have been erected at the 13 chosen areas.