Township communities can now benefit from shower containers which provide hygienic and safe shower facilities.
Community showers are built in steel containers and are designed to be used by people living in informal settlements, squatter camps and basic block houses.
The first seven shower containers, providing 42 individual showers, were introduced in Nomzamo, Strand, Western Cape.
The company behind the initiative, Showers for Africa, views the containers as a business opportunity for community entrepreneurs.
Business-owners earn income from the sale of shower cards. Owners of the properties on which the containers are located benefit from rental.
The shower containers have separate cubicles (for males and females) and are lockable from the inside.
The project is supported by the local community and municipalities and follows months of consultation.
Municipalities controlling the first seven locations for the shower containers provided additional water facilities as well as drainage pipes and extra power to illuminate the containers and the immediate surroundings.
The project has begun to attract investor interest.
"We have attracted investors from the community, such as Zamindiela Gosa of Nomzamo. Gosa has played an important role in the evaluation and selection of sites for the shower containers and in negotiations with land owners and the selection of shower monitors," says Showers for Africa co-founder Mark Gradie.
"We are hoping to attract small and large investors. Our goal for the first phase of the project was to have the first shower container operational by October and for the rest to be installed in three-weekly intervals, with the last one being operational in February 2005."
Additional investors will be required if the project is to make a real difference to the community, he says.
