South Africa - Social Franchising for Operations and Maintenance of School Sanitation Facilities and Demonstration of on-site Faecal Sludge Treatment

The rationale of the Social Franchising for Operations and Maintenance of School Sanitation Facilities and the Demonstration of on-site Faecal Sludge Treatment in East London project is the need to dramatically improve the usability of existing school sanitation facilities through franchised operation and maintenance services and safe handling of faecal sludge for non-sewered urban and peri-urban areas of East London District. This project aimed to facilitate better learning and improve environmental sanitation. It will be implemented in the Eastern Cape Province, one of South Africa’s poorest provinces, which suffers from a huge sanitation backlog, with high proportions (50%) of the population using ordinary pit latrines. It targets the Educational District of East London, one of 23 Educational Districts (predominantly peri-urban) within the Eastern Cape, with over 5,626 schools and 1.9 million enrolled children. The project will be conducted over a period of 30 months and is aimed to spend a total of € 2 424 216 for the purpose of executing the components under this project. It will be implemented through four key components: 1) Improved school sanitation facilities and practices for boys and girls; 2) Development and application of social franchise model; 3) Demonstration of PPP for faecal sludge management, and safe reuse; and 4) Project management and knowledge management.