South Africa’s rural areas still struggle with serious sanitation and sewage deficits. It is estimated that around one in five South Africans lacks access to safely managed rural sanitation infrastructure. Fast and effective solutions are needed. Cobro has designed just such a solution – the COBROLOO.

South Africa’s Rural Sanitation Challenges

Among the many challenges our country currently faces, sanitation remains particularly troubling. It is estimated that well over 5 million South African children still have to use pit latrines. Over two percent of South African households still use bucket toilets.

Even in those settlements where bucket toilets and pit latrines are available, people still face serious challenges. These include:

  • Infrastructure deficiencies, with national, provincial and local governments failing to invest enough in water and sanitation infrastructure.
  • Shared facilities: Most informal settlements rely on shared toilet facilities, which can pose serious hygiene and safety problems.
  • Institutional challenges: The various stakeholders often don’t seem able to coordinate their efforts and create effective and sustainable sanitation solutions.
  • Water scarcity: In many rural areas, water supplies are quite inadequate and unreliable.

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COBROLOO – A Simple and Affordable Solution

It is difficult to suggest any one solution to all of these complex problems. Many of the challenges are institutional or political in nature, and solutions in those areas are not easy to come by. However, it is possible for individuals and businesses to offer practical solutions that can be implemented regardless of elections and municipal management issues. With this in mind, we at Cobro decided to introduce our own, simple and practical answer to the rural sanitation issue, drawing upon our expertise in precast concrete products: the COBROLOO.

The COBROLOO is a precast toilet system of our own design, which we are currently marketing to government and other stakeholders as an easy way to provide effective ablution facilities in South Africa’s impoverished areas. It is a lightweight concrete toilet consisting of a concrete slab base, a superstructure that includes a galvanised steel cross brace, and a toilet pan. It can be installed over a latrine pit for a more private, comfortable and hygienic facility. Once a pit is full, the COBROLOO can be dismantled and reinstalled over a new pit.

Get in Touch with Cobro Today

Cobro is a well-established provider of concrete pipes, culverts and other pre-cast concrete products. Contact us for more information about the COBROLOO or any of our other products.

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