More than 1,500 schools were earmarked to receive the 5,000l tanks as a temporary sanitation measure led by the province’s education departments, said provincial education superintendent-general Themba Kojana.
“We recognise that these temporary solutions do not address the longer term needs of learners and educators,” Kojana said, “[but] it is the best course of action we are able to take to address immediate needs in light of insurmountable budget constraints.”Some 508 schools had been earmarked as priority cases, the Eastern Cape education department said, noting that facilities were now in place at 96% of the schools.
The two-phase programme aims to ensure that school pupils are able to stick to basic handwashing regimes to help stop the virus from spreading. The Eastern Cape is SA’s third-worst-hit province, with 21,938 cases of Covid-19 as of Saturday, according to the National Institute for Communicable Diseases .
By the end of the project's first phase, some 3.78 million litres of clean drinking water will have been delivered to the struggling schools.
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