Given that one in two South Africans has no access to adequate sanitation facilities - either no facilities, or an unsafe pit or bucket toilet - there is clearly no place for a "yuk" response from people helping to address the sanitation problems of the poor.

Those of us with daily access to clean and efficiently flushing toilets don't think twice about the hazards of unsafe sanitation, which include diseases like cholera, dysentery and environmental pollution. Cholera outbreaks tend to receive widespread media attention and speedy, crisis-management responses.

Less talked about, but just as deadly, is acute diarrhea, which is a direct consequence of poor water and sanitation provision. Diarrhea kills more than 50 000 South African children every year and affects millions more. HIV and Aids sufferers with compromised immunity are particularly vulnerable to diseases related to poor sanitation.

Seemingly less serious sanitation-related ailments like scabies and intestinal worms are also severely debilitating - the latter can stunt mental and physical growth and even result in death.

The acute health problems that exist or can potentially arise in certain of the urban and in almost all the rural areas of our developing country are as a result of either non-existing or inadequate waste matter treatment.

We are the first to concede that these conditions exist not because of the various authorities neglect but as a result of the almost unbelievable demands that are being made on resources that are not limitless.

It has been reported that half of Johannesburg and Durban's populations (to mention just two large cities) are without access to water-born sewage. These cities' municipalities have realised that they cannot afford to continue installing and maintaining water-born systems and are beginning to offer pit latrines options instead.

No consideration appears to be given to our rural countrymen.

BIZ can make a very significant contribution to the prevention to the spread of diseases such as cholera, dysentery, diarrhoea, and typhoid which are caused by the lack of waste treatment facilities.