Two years ago, South Africa had its worst ever outbreak of cholera, in the Kwazulu-Natal province. The disease was spreading because supplies of clean water were being contaminated with sewage inside the villages.
“We were horrified,” says Ronnie Kasrils, the ex-Communist and ANC intelligence chief who is now the country’s water minister. “We asked why it happened, when we provide them with clean water. We realised that we were neglecting sanitation.” Kasrils’s response was a 10-year programme to install more than a million latrines throughout South Africa’s rural areas. Getting clean water to people is meaningless, he discovered, unless you also give them toilets.…
