Millions of people do not have access to proper sanitation and in South African schools the situation is especially dire. Health-e News Service conducted an informal survey of the state of 17 schools' toilets that fall within four of the National Health Insurance (NHI) pilot districts. At all 17 schools the toilets were in a shocking condition. By OurHealth Reporters.
TSHWANE. – The community of Soshanguve Block L is fed up with the foul smell coming off the heaps of uncollected garbage piling up in the area.
TSHWANE. - The community of Soshanguve Block L is fed up with the foul smell coming off the heaps of uncollected garbage piling up in the area.
SOSHANGUVE. ' A young mother here is enduring a lot of hardship while waiting for the Human Settlement Department to construct housing as part of the Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP).
Southern Africa is due to become hotter and drier as a result of climate change, and this is going to change the country's disease profile.
VHEMBE. - While many people here are still trying to recover from the damage caused by the recent floods, the community of Josefa, next to the Kruger National Park's Punda Maria gate, is pleased with the steady supply of water it has brought.
BETHLEHEM. ' Sanitation in the Bohlokong area in the Free State is so poor that it has started affecting the health of children in the Baipeing community in Bethlehem.
VHEMBE. ' The district municipality in this northern region of Limpopo recently raised concern about the high incidence of malaria in the area.
Vhembe. ' A Limpopo man has spoken of how he held his wife as she died in his arms after heavy rains caused a wall of their house to collapse on top of her. Edzani Musetsho said he was unable to get her to hospital because the bridge that leads out of their village was swept away by the flood water.
Media Release: The SA Medical Association (SAMA) has stressed its frustration and disappointment about the current situation at Themba Hospital in Nelspruit, Mpumalanga, which has been without water since 4 January 2013. The association has therefore urged the MEC and the Provincial Department of Health in Mpumalanga to address this dire situation - a serious health risk to both the institution's patients and doctors.
Vhembe - Villagers from Matavhela and Mufulwi have had their tap water supplies restored after alerting OurHealth that they had to rely on unsafe rain and river water.
OurHealth - Itlotliseng Primary School learners in Tseki village, Phuthaditjhaba (Qwa-Qwa) in the Free State have to every day deal with dirty toilets and unreliable access to water.
Mayor Patricia de Lille has admitted that the City's janitorial services in informal services needed to be jacked up and her office has taken over the monitoring of this service.
CAPE TOWN - A landmark daily janitorial service for communal toilets in the City's informal settlements - launched with great fanfare in May by Mayor Patricia de Lille - has come to a grinding halt.
A Medical Research Council (MRC) study warns that as more people move into the cities, their health challenges will become dire. The community of Hospital Hill, in Johannesburg, is a case in point. More than 90 % of the residents live in urban poverty and are unemployed.
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