Water, Hygiene and Sanitation

Next up is a report on the aims of our projects as they move into the next stage of work - health education. Written by Abby and Rojia of Charlie 2

2.6 billion People (around 40% of world's population) do not have access to good sanitation; of which 1.1 billion practice open defecation.  India accounts for 59% of this figure.

Unsafe water and poor sanitation are the leading cause of 80% of all diseases in the developing world. 2.4 million lives a day would be potentially saved by providing clean water and improving sanitation in underdeveloped communities. Improved sanitation is important not only to human health, but also to economic and social development.

Open defecation not only pollutes ground water sources, but contaminates agriculture products and spreads diseases such as diarrhoea, cholera and bilharzia. A Lot of time is spent collecting water and finding a spot for open defecation which impacts the community's productivity. 

To tackle these issues DFID aims to improve hygiene and sanitation and access to clean drinking water. These improvements are carried out in order to achieve the Millennium Development Goals.

 As an ICS group, we are working in a village in south India. Our main focus covers 3 of the key issues DFID deals with: water & sanitation, health, and education.

Working in partnership with MYKAPS, we have received training on conducting PRA (participatory rural appraisal) exercises and surveys, creating Eco-sanitation units and educating beneficiaries on using and maintaining them.

Eco-Sanitation units provide a hygienic, safe and economic way to convert human waste into nutrients which could be returned to soil. Considering the limited water supplies in the village, Eco-san is an effective solution.

 1.5 million toilets a year are being constructed in India under Total Sanitation Campaign, however more than half remain unused or are used for other purposes such as storing chickens or firewood, and the families revert to open defecation. These facts and figures strongly suggest that provision of facilities alone is not sufficient to improve the community’s health and will not have a long lasting impact.  We are going to work closely with the beneficiaries to ensure they are aware of the benefits of the facilities provided to them and know how to use and maintain them.

Our overall objective is to identify key strategies and actions that can help to completely eradicate the practice of open defecation while raising awareness on issues such as sanitation and personal hygiene.

We are carrying out different types of training and educational events such as PRA exercises, surveys and health camps with the aim of incorporating the knowledge and opinions of rural people in the planning and management of development projects and programmes. Examples of other activities would be raising awareness through painting walls with educational messages etc.

12 Eco-sanitation units will be built for the selected beneficiaries. These beneficiaries will receive training on how to use and maintain the toilets; they could then pass this information on to the rest of the community and encourage them to use toilets. Post- construction we will monitor the beneficiaries’ progress and support them if required.

Generally women are more concerned with water and sanitation matters and have more managerial skills and experience at the community level. We are planning to re-establish a self help group in the village (A village-based financial intermediary usually composed of 10–20 local women, having a variety of goals including empowering women and developing leadership). We could then educate and support the members to make changes in basic hygiene behaviour in daily sanitation activities.

In the second phase of the programme, we will be focusing on conducting health camps within the local area as well as other projects to create a better living environment for the community. The health camps will increase awareness of water, hygiene and sanitation, among other things, and improve the well being of the community members.

The nearest hospital from the village may not be accessible to most people due to distance, financial problems, lack of transport or time etc; therefore the health camp will be a great way to make healthcare more accessible to the village. We will also advertise in the surrounding villages to maximize the number of people that could benefit from the events.

The camps will focus on different issues such as sanitation, health and hygiene education, nutrition, sexual education and maternal health tying into DFID’s aims.