There is an increasing phenomenon in the world, a tall order of extra-ordinary proportions that seeks to reverse the gains and the foundation laid by our forebearers in the quest to emancipate women and young girls.

Our pervasive enemy is called “sextortion”.

The International Association of Women Judges describes sextortion as “the pervasive, but often ignored, form of sexual exploitation and corruption that occurs when people in positions of authority – whether government officials, judges, educators, law enforcement personnel, or employers – seek to extort sexual favorus in exchange for something in their power to grant or withhold”.

Women, young girls and people with disabilities are the most vulnerable to these heinous acts at the hands of people entrusted with responsibility of providing services or protecting them. During pandemics, wars, famine and droughts, these vulnerable groups are always at the receiving end.

Lack of basic services does not affect men as such, but it adversely affects women, young girls and persons with disabilities in several ways and in turn they become victims of sextortion, rape and sexual assault among other odious acts perpetrated against them.

The water and sanitation space has become fertile ground for those with vile hearts in pursuit of their self-serving acts at the expense of vulnerable groups. Women and young girls in unserved communities, particularly in rural areas bear the brunt of fetching water in dawn or in dusk, in turn, get exposed and end up being prey to the scavengers.

Without dignified sanitation services, women and young girls have their dignity impaired when they have to relieve themselves in the bushes.

The United Nations Water says without safely managed water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) services, women and girls are more vulnerable to abuse, attack and ill-health, affecting their ability to study, work and live in dignity.

A 2023 Joint Monitoring Programme by the World Health Organisation and United Nations Children’s Fund shows continuing stark inequalities in access to water, sanitation and hygiene, with a heavy burden falling on women and girls. It shows that 2.2-billion people around the globe still lacked safely managed drinking water, including 115 million people drinking surface water.  

This report further notes that achieving universal coverage by 2030 will require a six-fold increase in current rates of progress for safely managed drinking water, a five-fold increase for safely managed sanitation.

According to the General Household Survey released by Statistics SA in 2022, 89% of South Africans have access to water while 84.1% people have access to improved sanitation services across the country. Considering where the country is coming from, with the known imbalances of the past, our government has moved steadily in improving people’s lives for better.

This year, we are celebrating 30 years since the attainment of democracy, we acknowledge that we have not moved at the speed at which we were supposed to have moved in ensuring that there is universal access to clean water and dignified sanitation.

While the department of water and sanitation has built and invested in bulk water infrastructure, such as dams in line with its mandate, there have been shortcomings across the water value chain. This is particularly with proper planning at national level, sometimes moving with so much speed while the local sphere of government doesn’t always catch the train.

This has been a litmus test for us in all three spheres of government to move together with one speed that will ensure that there are no gaps. Our ministry has been engaging the local sphere of government on a myriad of issues, including to ensure that they are assisted with governance and technical capacity that will ensure that there is synergy at all levels.

It can’t be correct that we build and build, however people still do not have access to water when their dams are full. We still can’t be crying about dilapidating infrastructure to this day, when we should be maintaining it, refurbishing and upgrading it to cater for the needs of the communities we service.

Mistakes have been made, we are working to correct all these mistakes and in carrying this task, we are aware that others will not be happy with us entering their space, but we appeal for cooperation in efforts that will ensure water security for our country.

We have a huge responsibility on our shoulders to ensure that even those who do not enjoy water and sanitation services thus far, are also serviced in a manner consistent with our constitution and trust embedded upon us as people’s representatives.

The fact that we have sextortionists in our midst, it is because we have not served our people in the manner that we should have. We need to accelerate our pace in

providing water and sanitation services to our people.

Once we do this, women, girls will not the bear the brunt of sex pests.

•  Tshabalala is deputy minister of water and sanitation