WASSUP Diepsloot, Report March 2019

INTRODUCTION
Adopting the WASSUP programme for sustainable water
and sanitation services in Diepsloot and elsewhere
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Since its founding in 2008, WASSUP (Water, Amenities,
Sanitation Services, Upgrading Program) Diepsloot,
a community-based organization, in collaboration with
Sticky Situations, a Johannesburg based organisation, has
worked against extraordinary odds to improve water and
sanitation services in Extension 1, Diepsloot township,
Johannesburg. In collaboration with international partners
including Global Studio, Healthabitat and IAPMO,
WASSUP has been able to make excellent progress,
given the crisis our city’s human settlements are facing in
terms of health, environment, sanitation, resources and
wellbeing.
For over ten years WASSUP has been repairing and
maintaining communal toilet facilities in Extension 1.
Working with limited resources, the co-operative has not
only developed a sustainable and accountable repair
and maintenance model, it has also developed a water
tracking system that has helped to generate important
data around water use and huge potential cost savings
for the City of Johannesburg. WASSUP’s processes and
practices provide scope for innovative best practice. The
methodology developed is an easily adoptable model that
can be applied at scale to existing City infrastructure.
This submission argues that it is time for the City of
Johannesburg to step up to its responsibilities in Diepsloot
and to provide the much needed financial and technical
resources that will ensure comprehensive and sustainable
water and sanitation services to under-served populations
across the city of Johannesburg. Such action by the City
would be in line with its commitment to South Africa’s
National Development Plan (NDP) and its commitments to
the UN Sustainability Development Goals, especially Goal
3 (Good health and well-being), Goal 6 (Clean water and
sanitation) and Goal 11 (Sustainable cities and communities).
This submission also argues that the people-centered
approach developed by WASSUP and Sticky Situations
provides a model that the City of Johannesburg can
adopt, build upon, and successfully implement into
other communities in need across the city.
10
FIGURE 06: WASSUP Diepsloot team at
their headquarters in Diepsloot, 2018
11