Kiribati’s North Tarawa declared first open defecation free island in the Pacific

Everyone on North Tarawa now has access to improved sanitation. Photo: ABC Radio Australia / UNICEF Pacific.

North Tarawa in Kiribati is the first island in the Pacific to be declared open defecation free, thanks to the “Kiriwatsan I Project”. The Ministry of Public Works is implementing this project with technical support from UNICEF and funding from the European Union.

North Tarawa is made up of a string of islets with a combined population of 6,102 (2010) and a land area of 15.26 sq.km.  Previously about 64 per cent of people used the beaches and mangroves for defecation and dumping their rubbish.

UNICEF spokeswoman Nuzhat Shahzadi says that diarrhoeal diseases cause 15 per cent of the deaths of children under five in Kiribati.

In March 2013, North Tarawa adopted the Community-Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) approach following a training of trainers course conducted by Dr Kamal Kar. The CLTS pioneer wrote that he had convinced Kiribati President Anote Tong to set December 2015 as the target date for the whole nation to become open defecation free.

The villagers of North Tarawa dig shallow pits and use local materials like brick and coconut leaves to build the toilet superstructure. They keep water and soap in one corner. After using the toilet, the villagers sprinkle ash to stop the smell and flies getting in, and then keep it covered.

Ms Shahzadi said that the women and girls were very happy that no longer have to go out on the beach in the middle of the night if they need to use the toilet.

Related web sites:

• IDS – Community-Led Total Sanitation
• CLTS Foundation
• IRC – Pan-Africa Programme (CLTS/SLTS/ULTS programme)
• SuSanA Forum – CLTS

Source: UNICEF, 11 May 2013 ; Radio New Zealand International, 13 May 2013 ; ABC Radio Australia, 14 May 2013

National level Workshop on Appropriate Toilet Technology, Gramalaya, Tiruchirapalli, India

Indian NGO Gramalaya is organising a National level Workshop on Appropriate Toilet Technology from 9-11 May 2012 in Tiruchirapalli, Tamil Nadu, with the support of Arghyam, Bangalore and UNICEF, Chennai. In this participatory workshop, field workers will be joined by engineers and sanitation experts to arrive at better toilet models for different topographical and hydro-geological conditions in India.

In 2007, Gramalaya set up a Centre for Toilet Technology and Training with funding from WaterPartners International (now Water.org), USA.

Read the workshop brochure here

Bangladesh: govt sanitation subsidy scheme ineffective, experts say

The government’s subsidy policy for sanitation needs to be more effective and more money should be allocated if Bangladesh is to meet is target of sanitation for all’ by 2013, experts say.

This is the conclusion of a study conducted among 21,121 households by the Human Development Research Centre (HDRC) with the support of WaterAid, UNICEF, and the Ministry of Local Government Division.

Economist Abul Barakat, who led the research team, said a Union Parishad, the lowest tier of the local government, receives Tk 145,000 [US$ 1,910] while a Pourashabha or municipality gets Tk 292,000 [US$ 3,840] a year in sanitation subsidy. “But the allocation is not properly utilised.”

Nepal: UNICEF and Finland sign Euro 9.8 million agreement for water and sanitation

UNICEF Nepal and Finland have signed an agreement on “Aligning for Action: Sanitation and Water for all in the Context of Climate Change in Nepal”. The agreement outlines the Finnish Government’s grant of Euro 9.8 million (US$ 14.3 million) over five years for UNICEF Nepal’s Water and Sanitation Programme.

The funds will help to:

• formulate and develop a national WASH sector programme
• develop the emergency preparedness and response capacity of the Nepali government, with contingency plans in all disaster prone districts
• support other existing government programmes in the education and health sectors to promote sanitation and hygiene

Read more about Finnish support for the water and sanitation sector on the website of the Embassy of Finland in Kathmandu.

Related web sites:

• Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Project in Western Nepal (RWSSP-WN)
• UNICEF Nepal – WASH

Source: UNICEF, 15 Mar 2011

Viet Nam: Procter & Gamble and Coca Cola support school water and sanitation projects

Multinationals Procter & Gamble and Coca Cola are separately supporting small-scale water and sanitation projects for schools.

UNICEF and Procter & Gamble collaboration for WASH in primary schools

UNICEF and global consumer product provider Procter & Gamble (P&G) have joined forces to provide water and sanitation facilities in primary schools in Viet Nam and educate children, parents and teachers about hygienic practices. Schools in areas most in need are being selected in Dien Bien, Ninh Thuan, An Giang and Dong Thap provinces. The joint UNICEF-P&G project will run till the end of 2011 and the total investment from P&G is 200,000 US$.

Through its “For a Bright Future” programme, P&G has helped build more than 30 sanitation facilities for schools, benefiting more than 12,000 children.

A recent survey showed that 20 per cent of schools in Viet Nam have no water source. The proportion is lowest among secondary schools (four per cent) and highest among pre-schools (34 per cent). In addition, while 73 per cent of schools have latrines, only 12 per cent of rural schools have hygienic latrines meeting Ministry of Health standards.

Improving sanitation facilities and practises in primary schools is an integral part of UNICEF’s Provincial Child-Friendly Program. P&G’s “For the Brighter Future” program in Viet Nam is part of P&G’s “Live, Learn and Thrive” global corporate cause that focuses on improving lives of children till the age of 13 years.

Source: UNICEF, 04 Oct 2010

Coca Cola inaugurates water supply in secondary school

Coca Cola inaugurated a safe water construction at the Van Binh secondary school, together with other safe water constructions in Thuong Tin district, Hanoi, providing nearly 6,000 pupils and students and 183 families access to safe water.

The constructions include wells, water treatment facilities, water tanks and wash basins, with an investment of over USD 28,500.

They are the final constructions of the project “Safe water for the community” in 2010 by Coca Cola and the Research Center for Family Health and Community Development (CEFACOM).

The project began in 2004. This year, many constructions have successfully been carried out in residential areas and schools in Thu Duc district in Ho Chi Minh City, Lien Chieu district in Danang City and Thuong Tin district in Hanoi.

The project has brought safe water and benefits to over 15,500 students and people

Source: Hanoi Times, 09 Sep 2010

Pakistan: sanitation crucial to survival for flood victims

Millions remain without proper sanitation in flood-affected Pakistan.

“Sanitation is ‘the invisible problem’ in disaster relief and by highlighting the problem, behaviour change happens,” according to Bill Fellows, the water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) global cluster coordinator working with United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the WASH cluster lead agency.

Hygiene is four times as important as clean drinking water for preventing diarrheal disease according to research published in The Lancet medical journal [1]. Whilst in flood devastated Pakistan, access to clean drinking water is on the rise, thanks to the efforts of WASH cluster member agencies, with 2.5 million people receiving clean drinking water every day, the attention to sanitation has become critical in preventing disease outbreaks.

UNICEF, in cooperation with the government, is implementing hygiene education in relief camps through a “no open defecation campaign”. “This is based on a system developed in Bangladesh and helps affected communities take a first step to achieve basic sanitation in disaster affected communities”, said Fellows.

In addition, the hygiene education campaign includes teaching flood survivors to build open pit latrines. As part of the flood relief efforts 2,723 emergency latrines have been built, benefitting 40,000 people.

Female health workers and Pakistan Red Crescent volunteers are also on the frontline of hygiene education, which is one of the most critical components in reducing water-borne disease. To date, these volunteers have helped educate almost 750,000 people on the benefits of good hygiene.

To compliment hygiene education, soap and hygiene kits are needed. UNICEF reports 400,000 hygiene kits are in the pipeline along with three million bars of soap.

“It is crucial in disaster response that flood affected communities receive latrines and soap, as well as hygiene education to prevent illness and disease”, said Manuel Bessler, Head of the Office of Coordination for Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Pakistan.

In addition to water and sanitation flood relief activities, UNICEF and its partners are engaged in an integrated approach to provide humanitarian assistance to millions of flood survivors through health and nutrition, child protection, education and prevention of child trafficking.

[1] The same conclusion can be found in a recent article by Cairncross et al. in the International journal of epidemiology

Read the latest Pakistan Floods WASH-related news on ReliefWeb

Related web site: Global WASH Cluster

Source: ReliefWeb, 14 Sep 2010

Philippines: school sanitation sparks ‘Bayanihan’ spirit in small village

The Filipino spirit of communal unity, ‘Bayanihan’, prevented school toilets provided by UNICEF going unused because of a lack of water. Parents contributed money for the purchase of containers of water in each toilet every school day.

Salag Elementary School, which stands along the highway of the sprawling Siaton town in Negros Oriental, a province in the Central Visayas islands of the Philippines, has long had a problem with a lack of adequate toilets. The school only had two comfort rooms, one for the boys and one for the girls, which are not enough to accommodate a student population of more than 100.

Pupils were often forced to use the nearest bushes and tended to loiter around, missing part of their lessons.

But things changed when Unicef stepped in to address the school’s problem. Teacher Sheila still remembers the day when officials from Unicef came to their school to deliver free goods as well as the good news. “They gave us books and notepads for the students and told us that they will give us comfort rooms. We were so happy when we heard that,” she recalled.

In 2009 all seven classrooms in Salag Elementary School got new toilets.

The provision of toilets is one of the many projects carried out by Unicef in elementary schools belonging to disparity villages in the province to promote school sanitation and hygiene. One of the requirements cited in Unicef’s Child-Friendly School System is for the school to be “healthy” with adequate sanitation and toilet facilities. To date, six elementary schools in disparity villages across the province are now enjoying the sanitation, and privacy, provided by clean comfort rooms courtesy of Unicef which supplied the toilet facilities. The local government units, in return, shouldered the cost of construction.

A grade schooler washes her hands using the water bought with funds from the parents, an initiative inspired by Unicef's health and sanitation campaign in schools. Photo: PIA

However, after the toilets were completed at the Salag Elementary School, it faced a dilemma because it had no piped water supply.

Although the village has a water source, the supply is not sufficient to address the water needs of the village residents. But this did not stop Principal Millard who was determined not to let the toilets go to waste. So he called for a meeting with the teachers and together they came up with an idea to solve the lack of water in the toilets. However, the solution they thought of can only be done with the support from the parents of the students.

So in the next Parent-Teacher Homeroom meeting, Principal Millard presented the solution before the parents- for each parent to contribute money for the purchase of containers of water in each toilet every school day. The principal was not sure if he could convince the parents. With Salag tagged as a disparity area, life in the village is hard and water is scarce and expensive.

But to the principal’s surprise, the parents readily said yes. Now, with the parents chipping in the funds, each classroom’s toilet has up to five gallons of water, enough to address the sanitation needs of around 60 students in each class. All this made possible by the bayanihan spirit among the Salag villagers.

Principal Millard thinks he knows why the parents chipped in.

“This would not have been possible had Unicef not provided the toilets. I don’t think the parents would have agreed to shelling out the money that quickly. They were inspired by what Unicef has done for the school”.

Related web sites:

• IRC – WASH in Schools
• UNICEF – WASH in Schools

Source: Rachelle M. Nessia, PIA, 13 Jul 2010

India: impact of sanitation award scheme to be assessed

The government will assess the impact and sustainability of the Nirmal Gram Puraskar (Clean Village Award) scheme implemented between 2005-2008. The Department of Drinking Water Supply under the Ministry of Rural Development will conduct a survey, based on a methodology that it developed with UNICEF, in 12 states*.

The objective is to assess the impact of NGP [Nirmal Gram Puraskar] on the pace of progress of sanitation availability and usage in the country under TSC [Total Sanitation Campaign] and its related impacts on health, education, gender empowerment, social inclusion in rural areas on different user groups particularly the rural poor. This study will also assess the durability and sustainability on the provision and usage of sanitary facilities over time. The rational of this evaluation study will be to provide important evidence on the NGP component of the TSC. The Study will provide a national level report on assessment of impact of NGP.

The Government of India introduced the NGP incentive scheme in 2003 under its Total Sanitation Campaign to reward local government institutions at village, block and district level, that had achieved full sanitation coverage (for households, schools and day-care centres) and were declared open defecation free.

* States to be covered in NGP assessment survey

Source: DDWS

A 2008 UNICEF study on NGP villages found high levels of non-use of toilets (34%), and that only 34% of schools had separate toilets for girls and boys. In most villages the study found a “severe drop in efforts towards social mobilisation and monitoring of ODF status after the NGP award has been received. This has resulted in slippage of ODF status in many GPs and is a serious concern with respect to sustainability”.

Source: PIB, 13 May 2010 ; DDWS/Ministry of Rural Development, 11 May 2010 ; India Sanitation Portal – Nirmal Gram Puraskar

Timor-Leste: water supplies running on empty

Despite significant donor investment in the water sector in Timor-Leste, sustainability remains the biggest challenge. Much of the country’s rural water systems fell into disrepair years ago. The government has made water a national priority for 2010.

According to Timor-Leste’s National Statistics Directorate, almost 40 percent of the country’s 1.1 million inhabitants lack access to an improved water source.

The problem is most evident in rural areas where approximately 75 percent of the population lives – 44.4 percent do not have access against about 15 percent in urban areas.

In the eastern districts of Baucau, Lautem and Viqueque, and Oecussi District, an enclave inside Indonesia, that figure tops more than 50 percent.

One community’s story

Of Lisapat’s 800 households, only 18 have access to piped water, with the rest relying on a nearby spring. Before 2002, everyone had access.

“It’s a big problem and one that we need to fix,” said Julio do Rosario Lemos, 34, who was recently elected the village’s head.

Between 70 and 80 percent of the country’s water system was destroyed in the violence and displacement that occurred after Timor-Leste’s indepence in 199.

“In many villages there are pipes with no water. In others there never have been,” Bishnu Pokhrel, a water and hygiene specialist with the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), told IRIN, citing poor management, lack of awareness, low institutional capacity and the impact of the 1999 political crisis.

Sustainability

“Sustainable water systems is the key goal,” Keryn Clark, programme team leader for the Timor-Leste Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Programme (RWSSP), an AusAID-funded project working with the Timorese government to improve water supplies, told IRIN.

On some projects in the past, the focus had been more on laying pipes that on community management, she said. It was critical that the community, which ultimately will be managing the system, is fully on board from the very beginning.

Maintenance of the infrastructure is also critical and outside Dili, the capital, few spare parts are available.

While many of the country’s community water management groups are well organized, others are less so and may not have the knowledge or means to undertake necessary repairs.

“You need to determine what the community can realistically manage and what they can’t, and then how you can support them,” Clark said, emphasizing that community training is key.

Institutional capacity

Until recently, each district had just one non-technical rural water supply and there was only one fully trained water engineer in the whole country.

Now with support from AusAID, another district level technical person has been added, as well as one or two community facilitators at the sub-district level, focusing on community management and sanitation.

“These are all key points in making the system more sustainable,” Clark said. “If we can actually make the systems that have been built, or are in the process of being built, work properly and [be] more sustainable, more people will have access to water.”

Source: IRIN, 08 Feb 2010

Indonesia: WASH concerns a month after Sumatra quake

Thousands of survivors of an earthquake that devastated Indonesia’s West Sumatra Province are still grappling with a lack of clean water and adequate sanitation more than a month after the disaster, relief workers say.

Aid agencies are delivering clean water to survivors by truck, but it is insufficient unless water sources damaged by the earthquake on 30 September [2009] are restored, said Endang Trisna, programme coordinator for Mercy Corps. “Water pumps in many houses have been damaged and wells are contaminated with sand and dirt. Some residents have no access at all to clean water”.

Trisna said Mercy Corps was [aiming to help 10,000 households] fix their water sources and providing treatment facilities, as well as building latrines and distributing hygiene kits in Padang Pariaman and Agam districts, among the worst hit by the earthquake.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in its 3 November report that funding for transitional shelter, water and sanitation, and agriculture activities was still urgently needed to bridge the gap into the recovery phase.

According to the report, 600,000 people in Padang, the provincial capital, will be reliant on water trucks until year-end.

There are also 4,000 displaced people in three camps in Agam and about 4,000 in six camps in Padang Pariaman who are being supported with water and sanitation activities.

The government declared a recovery phase from 1 November [2009] in all but Padang Pariaman and Agam, home to the camps, where the emergency phase continues because sanitation is particularly poor. The camps are providing shelter for some of the thousands of people displaced by landslides triggered by the earthquake, said Tanty Pranawisanty, Mercy Corps emergency response team leader.

The government is expected to announce its rehabilitation and reconstruction action plan on 15 November, the OCHA report stated.

Ade Edward, head of West Sumatra’s disaster coordinating agency, said piped water had been restored in 60 percent of households in Padang, while about 1,000 temporary shelters had been built by aid groups.

But he admitted that living conditions for people displaced in Agam and Padang Pariaman were still far from normal.

Funding gap

UNICEF, said aid groups have complained they lacked funds to deliver water but stressed that the situation would not threaten the emergency relief effort.

“Aid agencies have been helping with the supply of water bladders and other equipment, but the operational cost is being paid by the local tap water company,” said Lely Djuhari, a spokeswoman for UNICEF Indonesia.

Source: IRIN, 04 Nov 2009