Hallelujah... New village toilet could answer the prayers of rural folk

26 March 2017 - 17:41 By Bongani Mthethwa
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Nkandla villager Mandla Zuma outside his Lali Loo installed in 2014. File photo.
Nkandla villager Mandla Zuma outside his Lali Loo installed in 2014. File photo.
Image: SUPPLIED

Say bye-bye to pit latrines and hello to the latest village toilet‚ the Lali Loo‚ which even has President Jacob Zuma excited.

While over 10.3-million households in South Africa‚ or 60.6%‚ have access to a flush toilet‚ just over 4.3-million households still rely on pit latrines. And at least 409‚881 households have no sanitation whatsoever‚ according to Statistics South Africa.

But a KwaZulu-Natal company‚ Sanitation Solutions‚ with branches in other provinces‚ has come up with a water-saving ceramic flushing toilet that could be the answer to sanitation problems in rural and peri-urban areas.

The "Lali Loo" derives its name from a Xhosa word ilali‚ which means a village‚ and can be used where there is no sewer infrastructure.

It was one of the innovations on display at the World Water Summit and Expo in Durban.

Zuma took some time‚ after receiving the United Nations World Water Development Report 2017‚ to inspect the toilet and was full of praise.

The Lali Loo has been piloted in Zuma’s home village of Nkandla‚ in former president Nelson Mandela’s Qunu village in the Eastern Cape‚ Khayelitsha in Cape Town‚ Sekhukhune in Limpopo and Botshabela in the Free State.

It uses just 1.5-litres of water to flush‚ compared to the normal seven to nine litres per flush.

It also has an optional 50-litre reservoir tank‚ which provides 33 flushes. The tank can be used to store rain-harvested or grey water from laundry and dish washing.

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