Amnesty International South Africa launched its pit toilet tracker on Tuesday, while urging government to immediately fix the country’s poor education infrastructure.

The tracker will monitor the number of schools in the country that are still subjected to inadequate ablution and sanitation.

Amnesty International South Africa wants the Department of Basic Education (DBE) to urgently act on its commitment to replace all pit toilets in schools by 2023.

“These illegal pit toilets are not only violating the right to sanitation, which is enshrined in the Constitution, but also the right to health, education, dignity, privacy whilst in some cases posing a serious risk to the right to life,” said Amnesty International South Africa executive director Shenilla Mohamed.

Current government data indicates that South Africa still has 5 167 schools that do not have proper ablution facilities and that still use pit toilets.

However, Amnesty International SA argues that the data provided by the DBE regarding pit toilets in schools is not reliable.

According to a report released in September 2021 by the South African Human Rights Commission, over a million pupils and teachers are affected by the challenges of poor sanitation in schools.

In the Eastern Cape 44% of schools use pit toilets as their primary ablution facilities. A further 30% of schools in the province use ventilated improved pit toilets. In KwaZulu-Natal, 83% of schools are primarily reliant on pit toilets and ventilated improved pit toilets.

Mohamed said instead of meeting targets to eradicate pit toilets, the DBE has repeatedly revised deadlines, saying initially that it planned to eradicate pit toilets by March 2022, only to tell the Polokwane High Court last year that in provinces such as Limpopo this can only be achieved by 2030 – over ten years later than the original timeline.

“The government must eradicate all pit toilets in schools and ensure that all learners have access to safe and hygienic water and sanitation facilities. Authorities must fix the toilet crisis in South African schools to make sure that pupils learn in a safe environment, including making sure that there is hygienic water and sanitation to help them prevent diseases such as Covid-19,” she said.

Meanwhile, the organisation is also calling on people to continue signing a petition started in 2020 which already has more than 20 000 signatures demanding the DBE eradicate pit toilets in schools across South Africa.