Streetcape gardens now have dry toilets for workers

A Finnish company donated two dry toilets to the Streetscape gardens in Vredehoek and Trafalgar High School.

Thanks to a Finnish company Biolan, homeless people who work at the Khulisa Social Solutions’ newest garden in Vredehoek, will no longer walk more than 30 minutes looking for a place to relieve themselves.

The company has donated two dry toilets for the two Streetscape gardens in Vredehoek and at Trafalgar High School that have been operating without a toilet.

Khulisa Social Solutions introduced the Streetscapes garden project in 2015 to promote a safer, healthier, more prosperous city and to help homeless people in the city get jobs.

The Finnish company sent Remote Year participants, workers who travel to different countries to work and give back to communities for a year, to assist.

The manager of strategic partnerships at Khulisa Social Solutions, Jesse Laitinen, said they were lucky to benefit from the company’s generosity.

“It will make a huge difference because we have more than 10 people here and a toilet is a basic necessity. We have mobile toilets in one of our gardens and they’re expensive and not good for nature,” she said.

The co-ordinator and the member of the Remote Year programme, Katri Mehtonen, said the group wanted to get involved in a positive project that would help save water in Cape Town.

“I approached the company and yes, they do have their interests and would like to work more in South Africa, so they grabbed this opportunity,” she said. She said her group chose the Streetscapes project because they’re pioneering their programmes.

The supervisor at the Vredehoek garden, Razaan Lucas, said she was grateful for this donation.

The company said their dry toilets were hygienic, odourless and environmentally friendly.