An Investigation into the Perceived Sanitation Challenges in the Eastern Rural Communities

ABSTRACT

There is a dearth of information on studies that have sought to examine qualitatively the sanitation challenges that rural communities experience. In this regard; an exploratory qualitative study was conducted to determine the perceived structural; economic; educational; social and technological sanitation challenges in the rural communities of the Eastern Cape (EC). A purposive sample of 122 officials was drawn from the identified EC sanitation stakeholder organisations; of these 74 were male and 48 were female. The 122 participants were divided into 15 focus groups (M = 8 participants) by organisation and randomly assigned to five trained moderators for interviews - four groups with the Provincial Sanitation Task Team (PSTT); six with the District Municipalities and three with the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry (DWAF); one with the Mvula Trust and one with the Rural Support Services (RSS). The findings show that rural sanitation is a complex issue that is affected by a wide range of challenges. Structural challenges include lack of physical; natural; human and organisational resources. Lack of funding was identified as the main economic challenge. Educational challenges include lack of advocacy; training; access to information and information exchange with local people. Inadequate community participation was identified as a social challenge. Lack of cultural flexibility; awareness and sensitivity in the development of technologies that recognise; respect and value culture constitute the technological challenge. The results of the study provide a knowledge base on which strategies for promoting good sanitation practices at community level can be built