Community-based organisation WASSUP receives funding from the City of Johannesburg through the Johannesburg Development Agency to tackle sanitation and water shortages in Diepsloot. This Mandela Day the organisation will be fixing leaking taps in the township.
For its contribution on International Mandela Day on 18 July, the Johannesburg Development Agency (JDA)will continue to support the Water and Sanitation Services Upgrading Program (WASSUP), a community-driven co-operative that repairs and maintains communal toilet taps and drains in Extension 1, Diepsloot.
The City of Johannesburg, through its implementing agency – the JDA, continues to assist the project through funding.
According to Sharon Lewis, JDA’s executive manager for planning and strategy, the agency is continuing its long-standing partnership with WASSUP. This year the JDA will be assisting by “providing financial management support to channel a grant for WASSUP’s work from the Development Bank”.
On Mandela Day, the organisation will, during its 67 minutes of service, fix 67 leaking taps in the township.
According to WASSUP, “When you go into the toilet, you go in with dignity; when you come out of the toilet, you come out with dignity.”