One of the worst legacies of apartheid is the inadequate provision of water and sanitation services. While the South African Constitution recognizes the universal right of access to these services, inadequate access still plagues the lives of the majority of South Africans. Densely built, informal settlements provide little space for full sanitation services making residents vulnerable to water-borne diseases and causing environmental pollution due to open defecation and greywater runoff. Challenged to provide water and sanitation services to the approximately 1 million people living in informal settlements, the e´Thekwini municipality’s Housing, Architecture, Health, and Water and Sanitation Departments jointly came up with the CABs concept. NGOs (Africa Ahead & Key of Hope) have trained and facilitated interaction with local residents.

The Communal Ablution Blocks (CABs) were designed and installed by the municipality. CABs are modified shipping containers, each having 2 showers, 2 flush toilets, 2 hand basins, 4 basins used for washing clothes, a small locked storeroom for cleaning materials and outside lighting to improve safety. They are connected to the municipal sewerage and water systems and are installed in pairs - one for women and one for men. To address the potential health hazard of greywater runoff, a vertical garden was designed so that greywater could filter directly to the roots of vegetables. To achieve community buy-in, the e´Thekwini Water and Sanitation (EWS) in partnership with Africa Ahead (NGO), established health clubs among the residents and conducted focus groups to determine what their needs were. People from the community were employed to assist in the installation process. These laborers acquired building skills which they can use in seeking further job opportunities. A caretaker is employed to manage the CAB (including cleaning and ensuring availability of consumables such as soap and toilet paper) and a support team is set up in the EWS to respond to any maintenance work.

The key ingredients for the success of the programme were the sound leadership, the working environment and the institutional capacity at the EWS department in the municipality. This allowed the EWS to form creative partnerships with the local ward councilors, the NGOs and the municipality, and it enabled each partner to play a very meaningful role in the successful implementation of the programme. Ongoing educational programmes with the beneficiaries of the CABs are crucial to prevent the outbreak of diarrhea. The partnership with the University of KwaZulu-Natal was crucial as the research conducted informed the municipality of possible conflicts and dissatisfaction with the process, as well at highlighting its shortcomings.