The Department of Water Supply and Sewerage (DWSS) under the Ministry of Physical Planning and Works (MPPW), the lead ministry for Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) sector in Nepal has since 2011 allocated budget for Regional WASH Resource Centre (RC) in Surkhet and decided to establish Regional WASH Resource Centres in four other administrative regions of the country. Nepal is divided into five regions and 75 districts for administrative purpose.

How did the change come about?

At national level, the exchange of information is primarily taken care of by two institutions:  the Resource Centre at DWSS and the Water, Sanitation and Hygiene-Resource Centre Network Nepal (WASH-RCNN). However, since Nepal consists of diverse administrative regions with remote districts, WASH coordination and the exchange of information within and among regions and districts were rather limited till recently.  While doing a needs assessment for establishing regional resource centres in 2009, the WASH-RCNN concluded that this lack of coordination and information hampered both policy development at national level and WASH service delivery at regional and district level.

In 2009 the WASH-RCNN started discussions with national government and its regional office on establishing a Regional WASH Resource Centre in Surkhet. Although the senior officials at Surkhet Regional Monitoring and Supervision Office under DWSS were in favour of a Regional WASH Resource Centre, some of the other actors in the sector were not convinced yet of the importance of resource centres at regional level.

Not much later in 2009 though, a cholera epidemic outbreak took place in some of the districts of Surkhet. The national level was unable to guide and coordinate actions at local level since they lacked proper information and access to the area, while the local level was doing their best but had no proper platforms for coordinated action. It was only then that some of the regional and district actors realised that they needed better coordination and information to help control the outbreak, to stop the contamination and reduce the death toll.

In 2010 the Regional Monitoring and Supervision Office (RMSO), the WASH-RCNN, UNICEF, WHO and the Netherlands Development organisation (SNV) office in Nepal signed a Memorandum of Understanding for the establishment of the Regional WASH Resource Centre (RC) in Surkhet. The Regional WASH RC in Surkhet has also been acting as a secretariat of the Regional WASH Coordination Committee that ensures that all actions related to water, sanitation and hygiene are well planned, prioritised and coordinated within the region.

Now by 2012, it is still too early to say what the impact has been of the Regional WASH RC and the Coordination Committee on WASH service delivery. It is certain though that WASH governance has improved: actions are well coordinated and prioritised in the region.

The experiences in Surkhet have also contributed to the Sanitation and Hygiene Master Plan 2011 of Nepal. In this Master Plan, Coordination Committees are made mandatory for all administrative levels, from national to village-level. So it has grown from a regional initiative into a national official policy.

By Rabin Bastola

Water, Sanitation and Hygiene – Resource Centre Network Nepal (WASH-RCNN)

Story sent for the 2nd edition of the Story Contest 2012

Not more than a few miles away, Luvuyo sat watching the herd intently. Although it was still winter, his worries were calmed by the fact that summer was near and her rains might grace the pastures once again. Ten calves were to be born in summer and Luvuyo feared that the cows weren’t receiving enough nutrition. Even the grass that blanketed the Transkei mountains looked parched and yellow. This was a sign that winter was still in session and the absence of the rain proved this. They had already roamed 15Km away from the kraal and the grass in the fields was disappearing rapidly.

He knew that with the help of irrigation the problem could be alleviated, however water stoppages at the communal tap had beeen occuring for weeks and unfortunately the cattle were beginning to suffer. As he kept a watchful eye on the herd, Luvuyo’s mind cast back to his Natural Science class. It was within that cramped classroom that he had learned about the water cycle and by the end of the lesson he realized that without water there would be no life. Luvuyo pondered about the water stoppages and the woman who was responsible for them. This woman was known as the Engine Operator and she was an ex-official member of the water committee.

The Engine Operator was in charge of the generator that distributed water from the borehole to the resevoir of Luvuyo’s disrtict. Luvuyo had often heard the complaints of his neighbours who accused the Engine Operator of malpractice and selfishness. When Luvuyo asked his father why nobody in the village tried to thwart the Engine Operator’s actions, his father made it very clear that it was not the nature of rural people to stand up to those who had more power than them. Luvuyo could identify with this however the education he received at school taught him that the people of this country had fought courageously for a democratic government and it was not a crime to voice one’s grievances to authority. In fact, Luvuyo had learned that it was the honourable thing to do in order to make society a better place.

The shadows of the mountains began to stretch signaling the arrival of dusk. It was time to return to the kraal and Luvuyo realised how hungry he had become. As he gathered his herd, he was greeted by Nomalanga who was carrying a few buckets. The direction she came from indicated to him that she had just returned from a visit to the communal tap. It was no surprise when he realised that not a single bucket was full of water.

Nomalanga had visited the communal tap during the times specified by the water committee and each visit was futile. She could not understand how the water commitee who were members of the village themselves could allow the Engine Operator to target ceratin households and punish them by causing water stoppages. As Nomalanga walked home, she dread the reaction of her mother when she would have to inform her that there was no water. At ten years of age, Nomalanga who performed all the house chores was aware that water was vital for their existence. The water commitee had made a rule that only 25 Litres of water was allowed per person in a day and like other families in their village, they made sure that they used each Litre wisely.

The absence of water concerned Nomalanga more than usual however because she would be attending a funeral very soon. Funerals and other traditional social gatherings required vast amounts of water and although families tried their best to conserve water, the potential of it running out was always a huge threat. Nomalanga who had only been outiside the parameters of her own village twice wished that her own village could have access to the running water she had seen in the towns she visited. She was ceratin that girls her age also had less to worry about because they could focus more of their attention on their schoolwork instead of taking time consuming trips to the communal tap. Nomalanga felt the familiar sense of hopelessness as she drew closer to home. If there was a solution to this problem what was it and when would her community enjoy the promise of “Water for all”?

Owen Jali had been anticipating the return to his village for weeks. Although he had become accustomed to the city life of Johannesburg, he always felt it necessary to visit his place of birth. Of course it was to see his family, but Owen also enjoyed the rush of excitement and nostalgia he felt whenever he drove past the villages of his childhood. LIfe in the rural areas was not easy and it was in fact in his adult years that he began to understand the true suffering of his community. In the city, life progressed quickly and the standard of living rapidly too. His career had trained him to look for areas of improvement and he realised that his village needed some improving. Owen had heard of the problems his community was facing regarding the distribution of water and he felt that it was time for an intervention.

Owen arrived during the day and when he began to see the huts that rested on the mountain slopes he really felt he was home. Upon his arrival, his family gave him the warmest of welcomes and they doted on him as though he were visiting for the first time. They even slaughtered a chicken to thank te ancestors for his safe arrival. It had been long since he had had his favourite dish of chicken feet. Once he had eaten, he conversed with his mother aboutthe problems the community was facing. When he had heard all he had needed to hear, he felt that it was necessary to speak to the representatives of the Chief as well as the Chief himself.

It was disappointing to hear that the Engine Operator, a woman, was responsible for these water stoppages. She knew how difficult it was to run a household and just because she received a stipend from the company contracted by the local district municipality didn’t give her allowance to abuse the system. It was even more disheartening to hear that she completely disregarded the role of the water committee as well as the chiefs who were in every essence the leaders of the community.

The Engine Operator had to respect the rules and procedures agreed upon by the water commitee. If they decided that water is to be distributed from the communal tap at a particular time she needed to respect this and do her job. Owen scheduled a meeting with the chiefs and he was informed about a misunderstanding that occured as a result of an intervention by a particular household. This household reported the Engine Operator to the Chief’s representatives who eventually involved the contractor who was resposible for employing the Engine Operator as stipulated by the district municipality. This misunderstanding caused a lot of tension and the conclusion was that the contractor urged the community to give the Engine Operator a chance to improve her operations.

When Owen returned that evening he knew that there was only one thing left to do. The community feared to stand up for their rights but Owen was going to convince them that this was the right thing to do. He decided to call a meeting organized by the chief where the members of the community could discuss their concerns and also formulate a plan of action to overcome the problems.

Owen knew that previous meetings had failed but he was determined to make a difference with this meeting. He also thought of solutions that he could contribute to the meeting. He noted that water should be supplied by electricity to each individual household by a service provider. He also noted that a water commitee should still be elected however they should also be trained on water and human rights. Gideon also suggested that the community be educated at large about water conservation and sanitation. Owen surveyed his page of suggestions and smiled with satisfaction to himself. The first step to solving the problem would be in helping the community to work together as a unit. When Owen arrived at this thought he was reminded of the Nguni proverb that says “Umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu” which essentailly means that on my own I am nothing but with the help of others anything can be accomplished.

From the author:

The characters in this story are fictional however the issues outlined are based on real incidents. This story is set in the Eastern Cape Province and it is based on the lives of the people who live in the rural Joe Gqabi district municipality which is a part of the eLundini local municipality. The issues discussed in the story are based on the experiences of the people who live in Mathafeni Village in eZingonyameni Administrative area in Mount Fletcher, South Africa.

By Nandi Majola

An underground well

By Mustapha Sesay, Sierra Leone.

Water is an essential in our daily activities and a basic right for all to access it at affordable rate.

It is unfortunate that as the world continues to celebrate World Water Day, most developing countries including Sierra Leone suffer from acute water shortage to millions of its population.

The situation for the scramble of water in the major cities is similar to those in the remote areas. It is disturbing to see the plight of the masses in the dirty drainages in the city of Freetown in long lines cutting rubber pipes for drinking water. If such a situation exist in the cities them what can we say about the rural poor areas.

This is one major factor for the spread of water borne diseases like diarrhea or cholera.
In majority of the schools, there is the absence of non functional taps; this has serious effects on the education of our children as the lack of water enhances poor hygiene and sanitation facilities.

In our Universities, the situation is very deplorable as students go without pure and affordable drinking water not to mention a decent learning environment, and yet society continues to talk of a clean environment.

Well water that dries up easily

In the Ministry of Health and Sanitation, most policies are not actually implemented in these educational institutions despite the various policies and huge chunk of funds provided. It must be noted that institutions have a very high percentage of the youthful population that continue to die slowly from unhealthy environment now called educational places.

How long can such deplorable places continue to exist and allow our children to inhale these polluted environments?
In some schools, teachers boldly stand in front of the children and teach the importance of water in our daily lives, yet in the schools not a single tap or well water could be located.

Water is essential for man’s daily activities and children cannot go without it for hours. Apart for being used as a source for drinking, they need it to wash their hands before eating so that the food is not contaminated. But in the absence of well water or standby taps, the children are left with no option but to eat contaminated food which contributes to the spread of diseases and affect their health status.

Many a time, some non-governmental organizations (NGOs) continue to operate in some regions without considering the felt needs of the populace, they go about installing water wells in certain places that are not utilized by the people, which at the end of the day becomes a waste of resources. It is but necessary that governments in African States prioritize the issue of water and in the schools. There is the need for school children to have access to affordable and clean drinking water within their environment and not go out of the compound in search of it.

Shallow dirty well

In most schools, as the dry season reaches its peak children would be seen moving out of the school compound to the neighborhood begging for cups of water to satisfy their thirst. Some class teachers have tried to arrest the situation by ensuring that the children contribute and buy a bucket to have water so as to deter others going out when classes are in session.

At the recent World Water Forum in Marseille, France, the UNDP Deputy Director for External Relations and Advocacy, Romesh Muttukumaru stated that ‘The Global Water Solidarity Platform, which is supported by the governments of France and Switzerland, connects local authorities and organizations to take action to solve water and sanitation challenges, through which, for example, municipal water authorities in more developed countries can take direct action to support the improvement of water and sanitation services in developing contexts by contributing 1% of their revenue or budgets’.

Muttukumaru further revealed that local authorities and water utility companies play a key role in responding to the challenges. “Together with an active coalition of stakeholders and concrete cooperation mechanisms, local leaders from across the globe are working in solidarity so everyone can access safe water and sanitation services,”

Manfred Kauffman, Chairman of solidarit’eau Suisse, a founding member of the Global Water Solidarity, said his organization has raised more than 2 million euros thus far by connecting communities in Switzerland with communities in the developing world to improve their water and sanitation.

In a report released by UNICEF, the issue of water, sanitation and hygiene affects children’s right to education in many ways. In an atmosphere of poor health, children are unable to fulfill their education potential. For example, 400 million school-aged children a year are infected by intestinal worms, which, research shows, sap their learning abilities.
As teachers working with children and helping to mould their lives, there are lots of ways of making recommendations to the Boards of Governors and the Governments through the school administration to ensure that the schools partly determine children’s health and well-being by providing a healthy or unhealthy environment. Although water and sanitation facilities in schools are increasingly recognized as fundamental for promoting good hygiene behaviour and children’s well-being, many schools have very poor facilities.

Conditions vary from inappropriate and inadequate sanitary facilities to the outright lack of latrines and safe water for drinking and hygiene

The teachers can also be a key factor for initiating change by helping to develop useful life skills on health and hygiene. Children are often eager to learn and willing to absorb new ideas. New hygiene behaviour learned at school can lead to life-long positive habits. Teachers can function as role models. School children can influence the behaviour of family members.

Today the West Africa Water and Sanitation Media Network (WASH –JN) an organization formed by journalists in the sub-region have added their call together with their partners at global and country level, to draw up programmes to improve sanitation and promote. As teachers, more priority and time allocation should be accorded to this subject. Pin ups and trash cans should be placed in various locations and school hygiene clubs formed to propagate the ideals of school Sanitation and Hygiene Education.

In the homes, the situation is more serious, as they are also forced to stay at home when family members become sick (often due to hygiene-related diseases); girls are more likely to be kept home to care for them.

To address this menace in our countries, there is the need to providing water closer to homes, increase girls’ free time and boost their school attendance. All children need a sanitary and hygienic learning environment, but the lack of sanitation and hygiene facilities in schools has a stronger negative impact on girls than on boys. Girls need safe, clean, separate and private sanitation facilities in their schools.

Story sent for the Contest 2012.

Vincent is showing his clean hands. Photo: Hadas

Just two years ago the city of Port-au-Prince collapsed. In a matter of minutes hundreds of thousands of people lost their lives as this proud city crumbled to the ground. In remembrance and mourning, we ask that you take a moment of silence to honor the dead and share the suffering of more than 500,000 people who remain homeless in Haiti’s capital.

There are many reasons to despair when remembering the tragedy that took place two years ago and the terrible suffering that continues today. But on the second anniversary of the earthquake that has brought so many of us together on a common mission to help Haiti, we want to share with you a story of hope. The story starts in Parc Izmery.

In those awful first days after the earthquake, when SOIL staff drove our old pickup truck down from Cap-Haitien, overflowing with the emergency medical and food supplies that your donations helped us buy, we moved into the yard behind the Matthew 25 Guest House, next door to the Parc Izmery soccer field. During those awful first days, when aftershocks were still shaking our almost broken hearts, we watched Parc Izmery turned into an emergency field hospital with volunteer medical teams from around the world conducting lifesaving surgeries on Matthew 25’s dining room table and providing ongoing medical care to the people moving into tents crowded together in the hot sun on the former soccer field.
A young man, who used to be a star player in one of the soccer teams that regularly held practices and tournaments on the Izmery field, was among the people who, newly homeless, moved into the park. One day when this young man was walking across the field he found $2000 in cash that had dropped unnoticed onto the ground. In those early days of chaos when the banks were still closed, many volunteers were bringing in large amounts of cash to purchase clean drinking water, tarps and emergency food, and it’s likely that one of the foreign aid workers at the field hospital had dropped the money.

This young man, who had lost everything in the earthquake, quietly put the cash into his pocket and walked it over to Sister Mary who runs the Matthew 25 Guest House in hopes that she could return the money to its owner. Sister Mary agreed to keep the money in a safe until someone came forward to claim it, and in the meanwhile people across Port-au-Prince continued to clear away rubble an!
d build again.

The small team of people at SOIL who had first came down from Cap-Haitian slept for weeks on mattresses circled up at the edge Parc Izmery, under the starry Port-au-Prince sky. Day after day we woke to the sounds of people singing and praying and going about their lives in the refugee camp that was once a soccer field. When we finally were able to catch our breath from endless days of distributing clean water and transporting injured people to medical care, our new friends at Parc Izmery helped us to construct SOIL’s first EcoSan toilet in Port-au-Prince. Haiti’s beloved musician, BelO, volunteered to perform at the inauguration ceremony and our friends from Parc Izmery and from around the world came out to celebrate the strength that was propelling us forward and allowing us to believe in the potential to rebuild.

Over time the SOIL staff moved out of Matthew 25′s backyard into a small room across the street where we lived and worked for many months, sleeping on the floor beside our desks, and then into a office just down the road where we continue to live and work to this day. Several of the people who helped build the first post-earthquake SOIL toilet in Parc Izmery joined us as staff and Sister Mary became a trusted SOIL board member. Together we went on to build hundreds more EcoSan toilets in camps across the city, providing sustainable sanitation to over 20,000 people who previously had no access to a toilet and setting an example that has since been lauded around the world for being a revolutionary, low-cost and effective emergency sanitation response.

Down the street from us, the Parc Izmery camp committee (an informal leadership group tasked with managing the camp’s ongoing needs) diligently started working with the people living in the soccer field to help them find permanent homes. Some people moved in with extended family, some people were able to repair their homes to a point that was livable and safe again, some people rented rooms in new households. It seemed like every time we stopped by the Parc Izmery EcoSan toilets to collect the toilet wastes and deliver them to our compost site for treatment, there were less people cooking diri ak legim (rice and vegetables) on charcoal stoves in front of their tents. And then, one day, all the tents were gone.

Sister Mary met with the Parc Izmery camp committee (which included the young man who had found and returned the cash so many months before) to tell them that the money had never been claimed. The committee decided that they would use the money to rehabilitate the park into a public community space and a soccer field. And one of the first things that they wanted to do was purchase a small amount of SOIL compost (generated, in part, from the EcoSan toilets at Parc Izmery) to re-seed the soccer field. SOIL has since gone on to sell compost to organizations working on agriculture and reforestation across Haiti, thereby generating money for ongoing sanitation provision, but we will always rejoice that our first buyer was Parc Izmery.

On this second anniversary of the earthquake it is easy to look out across the Port-au-Prince skyline, dark with electricity outages and exhaust fumes, and feel despair over how much work is still to be done and how much harder it will be to do as people around the world read about the vast sums of money that were seemingly squandered in the reconstruction effort and how little there is to show for it. This is surely one of the stories to be told, but on the second anniversary of the earthquake, we choose instead to celebrate the generous individuals and the small community organizations that responded to the needs of their communities and built toilets and then gardens and soccer fields with the compost they generated.

Donations to Haiti have slowed disastrously over the past year, and we ask you, our dear friends and supporters, to donate a small amount on the twelfth of each month as a way to stand with the people of Haiti and tell them we will never forget and we will work hard to make sure everyone has access to a clean toilet and a roof over their heads and food on their stove.

And now, if you come down to visit us in Port-au-Prince we will still take you over to Parc Izmery. But this time, instead of touring a camp, we will ask you to stay and watch a soccer game. If you need to go to the bathroom, there is a sparkling clean and beautifully painted EcoSan toilet right on the edge of the field.

By: Leah Nevada Page, Development Director, SOIL

Organisation: SOIL (Sustainable Organic Integrated Livelihoods)

Clara town, founded by a Methodist missionary 40 years ago, is attracting global attention in recent years, as its inhabitants are burdened by the effects of poor, inadequate and over stretched sanitation facilities, unsafe drinking water supply, decrepit drainages, and poor hygiene practices.

The Clara community has a population of 48,000 with 67 fully built up houses (and another 967 unfinished houses) inhabited by 12,335 women and 11,730 men, people, according to a community census exercise. Its residents face huge challenges in accessing improved water supply, safe sanitation and hygiene services.

Access to water, sanitation, and hygiene services is generally poor in Liberia including its capital city Monrovia. Facilities have generally old and deteriorated no thanks to a 14 year old civil war.

Statistics are also unreliable, but a 2009 story by Allwestafrica.com reports that “just one-third of Monrovia’s 1.5 million have access to clean toilets, and 20 to 30 cholera cases are reported weekly; in 2008 there were 888 suspected cases, 98 percent of them in Monrovia’s overcrowded shantytowns such as West Point, Buzzi Quarter, Clara Town, and Sawmill”

Open defecation

Raymond is a 45 year old male resident in Clara town, who admits to practicing open defecation because basic sanitation facilities are inadequate, unaffordable, and over stretched. He narrates his experience,

“When you go to the toilet, you stay in line, sometimes 100 people can be outside, and sometimes 50 people can be on the queue waiting to use the toilet. You may pou-pou (defecate) on yourself if you have running stomach”

Veronica: I ‘toilet’ in the open

Another resident, Veronica a 9^th grade female student of Saint Mary’s Catholic School in Clara Town, says some of her colleagues often contact water borne diseases due to the poor WASH services. “One of my friends had got cholera after drinking “. As a way out the school pupils resort to buying packaged water in plastic bags: “In the school, we buy us spent $5 Liberian dollars to buy Mineral water”

Though there is a toilet in her school, there are no soap and hand towels for her to ensure personal hygiene after using the toilet facilities. If lack of hand washing items is only her headache in the school, it would have been better. 15 year old Veronica faces challenges in maintaining personal menstrual hygiene due to lack of safe water and sanitation facilities in the school, saying some of her colleagues including at times excuse themselves from class work in order to cater for their mistral needs: “If the menses of any of the female students start in school, then you will tell the Teacher, and you will come home. We often miss classes and lessons because of this.”

Read the whole article here:

By Babatope Babalobi, in Monrovia.

Crunchy numbers

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Bathanchoudi is one of the communities where toiletfacilities are being constructed. A local user committee “Bathanchoudi Batawara Tatha Tole Sudhar Samiti” has been formed to run the construction works smoothly and to make the community people accountable towards the development works and maintain the transparency. The majority of the committee members are women and from marginalized group i.e. Danuwar community. The leadership of the committee is run by Sarita Danuwar as a president of the committee.

Sarita shares how she has been through the hurdles during the project implementation at her community, where most of the people are illiterate and extremely poor.

“The community people tried to find a local mason in the community for construction of toilet rings and slabs, but they were unable to find one. There was a mason in the community who has been involved in the civil construction works earlier, but his work was not satisfactory. Besides,  I also visualized that by involving another mason, the community could not afford it. There is no other alternative except to motivate the community. But the challenge is that local people have to go for collection and loading boulders from a nearby river for their daily earnings and no one showed confidence to build the rings.”

To overcome these hurdles in the community, Sarita visited the project sites where the construction work is going and collected the information and knowledge from there.  With the proper knowledge and guidance from the CIUD site office staff and the neighbouring community she wanted to try producing rings by herself. She did get support from her family as well as from the community. Sarita’s husband Saroj Danuwar equally supported her to start this process. Her first attempt to construct rings was successful without any construction training. She is not only helping the community in constructing rings but is also producing rings at affordable cost. On average one ring cost Rs. 500.

 Sarita constructing toilet rings

The family earning source before was only the labour work on the river side i.e. loading boulders which is not sufficient even to run a small family. The skill developed by Sarita as well as the support from the family has helped to generate good income. Sarita earns Rs. 500 for her work , constructing 10 rings for a toilet. In the project period she did construct 10 rings a day.This case of Sarita shows that a woman can be a leader as well as good supporter for her family.

Sarita added that, “the toilet materials are being transported to the households by tractor so that it less work and  for the people and they don’t have to spend extra time for collecting materials. The rings have been constructed timely and are of good quality. The community people are satisfied with the committee’s work. But still there is one obstacle as some people in this community have no space of their own for toilet construction, including myself. So, we requested formally to the Community Forest Committee to provide land for construction of a toilet. The committee accepted our request and granted land for constructing toilet, which has helped the community to make the place a better one.”

One of the toilets

This year 315 toilets have been constructed in six communities in Kamalamai Municipality with active community participation as well as coordination.  o run the programme smoothly.

One of the main objectives of the project is to make the community an Open Defecation Free (ODF) zone. Trained Volunteers for Water Environmental Sanitation and Hygiene (VWESH)  are supporting the project by applying the knowledge gained through periodic training and door-to-door visits and are helping to raise awareness in the community to bring sustainable hygiene behaviour change.

Local materials are used for the door and roof

CIUD staff trained 15 volunteers for the campaign in FY 2009/010. Initial training was for six days and more theoretical based and the refresher training for VWESH is practical based.

Although two of the volunteers dropped out from thge campaign for personal reasons the toilet construction and hygiene promotion work in 16 communities including Bathanchoudi continues to go smoothly.

Herina Joshi

Email: herina@ciud.org.np

Visit my website, blog, etc: http://www.ciud.org.np 

Story submitted for the Source field story contest,

Sridharan, a 32 year old youth, one day had a chance to attend a village meeting of women self‐help groups formed by Gramalaya, a local NGO. The field staff from Gramalaya was talking about the formation of Association for Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (AWASH ) committees in the village. They also briefed the women  about the dangers of open defecation nearby the water bodies and the importance of having toilets at the households.

People in the village were mentioning about the water logging problem of their village and the few septic tank model toilets constructed in the village very often get filled. Emptying was a recurring problem and so was getting the money for clearing the toilet tanks. The field staff talked about eco‐san compost toilets and the appropriateness of the model in this type of soil situation. All the members at the meeting agreed that there should be an exposure visit to a village where similar eco‐san toilets were constructed by the local people and that were in use by the families. Srirdharan joined the exposure visit to the National Institute of Water and Sanitation, maintained by Gramalaya and Seventhilingapuram village.

From that moment Srirdharan got more interested in the eco‐san toilet models and he motivated other community members in his village. By his support and with technical assistance from the local AWASH committee, the villagers were able to construct 80 eco‐san toilet models and 40 household water connections.

One of his relatives Mrs.Gomathi constructed a septic tank model costing Rs.70,000 (Euro 1,100), which required frequent clearing of the pit and considerable money for pit emptying and disposal works.

Mrs.Gomathi

Srirdharan was motivated by the field staff from Gramalaya to construct an eco‐san toilet at his home utilizing the financial support from Gramalaya NGO. He constructed an eco‐san toilet at a cost of Rs.7,000/‐ ( Euro 110) at his home two years back, which he constructed with a bathroom facility.

When he got married last year, his wife Saraswathy was hesitant to use the eco‐san toilet since it was not like a conventional toilet model where water would be used for flushing. Sridharan motivated her by telling her all other family members like his mother, father and brother are using the eco‐san toilet. He further affirmed that it is a water saving toilet where water is not used for flushing. He also explained that the compost (humus) from the eco‐san toilet chambers can be used as manure in their garden or cultivation fields. Sridharan’s wife too started using the toilet along with other family members.

Srirdharan is applying the compost from his eco‐san toilet to the local garden where coconut, banana and mango saplings are planted. The eco‐san toilet itself is having an attached bathroom to ensure convenient and privacy for women and for other hygienic purposes.

Srirdharan decorated his eco‐san toilet with paintings and flower plants to show that is an user – and environment friendly toilet for the entire family.

S.Damodaran, Founder Director – Gramalaya, Tiruchirappalli
mailto:sdamodaran63@gmail.com
website :  www.gramalaya.in

Story submitted for the Source field story contest.

Back to the history, our district, “La Vorágine”,  was founded by Mr. Nicolas Felipe Mejía in the year of 1943 and is one of the 13 districts forming the small town of Pance, where the crystal and cold water of the river attract many foreign and Colombian tourists at weekends or in the holiday season.

Vereda La Vorágine

This district was originally called La Vega (the fertile lowland).  The district’s economy was based around two coal mines.  At one time only a dusty bridle path  linked La Vorágine with Cali. It was only in the 1950s that the highway was built.  Since the 1960s when tourism started to rise, La Voragina has been a tourist destination.

Construction of the aqueduct

With the increase in tourism, the need to seek other sources to supply the community with water increased and the water from the river was of very poor quality.  In 1980 the Municipal Public Department of Health (SSPM) started a project to improve this situation.

Two very important people, María Dilia Henao and Javier Ruiz were responsible for starting the work to build an aqueduct; with the help of many others.  Mrs Dilia, who arrived in this region in 1945, from her home north of the Valley of the Cauca recalls that a channel already crossed from south to north and used part of water of the river Pance.  Before the collective water supply was built, most people used to fetch water from there.

At that time, the Chorro de Plata was used as a source for La Vorágine.  In 1984 a channel, a 28 cubic metre brick storage tank and a distribution network, were built. But not everything was working. In 1985 Mrs Dilia, Javier, a leader of our community,  and other inhabitants come to an agreement to make the system work and two 55 gallon metal tanks were, which they are installed at the bank of the stream to make it work as a sandtrap. A 2 inch diameter hose was installed to take water from the inlet at Chorro la Plata to the two tanks.  Two 3 inch PVC pipes were also installed, which completed the system finished.

Overcoming difficulties

Finally work on building the aqueduct started, but there were also problems. Twice the pump was broken with a machete, since some of the neighbours were not happy with sharing their water.  In 1987 the SSPM made new investments to bring the water to the inlet, with a four inch galvanized channeling network.  A sandtrap was also built.  The community is  happy with the aqueduct in spite of the water not being treated.

Ptap Primera fase de construccion

In 1997 the Association of Aqueduct Users was formed and the sewer system of the Locality of La Vorágine (ASOVORAGINE) was constructed.  In the year 2000 we started dreaming of the construction of a PTAP, because we were tired of seeing pipes blocked with mud, stones and even fish.  In 2001 a budget was set to start construction of the PTAP but we did not have the economic resources to complete the aqueduct.

The owner facilitated the payment in two instalments.  We only had 1.4 million pesos (Euro 570) of funds from ASOVORAGINE.  The community council lend us six hundred thousand pesos, but we were still missing three million for the initial quota.  We asked financial companies but they had many requirements. Finally in a desperate act I came with the idea to mortgage my wife’s house and we manage to secure the investment.

The result of our efforts

After three phases of construction we now have an excellent drinking water system.  But our community did not have culture of the careful use of water, and the PTAP began to operate at its maximum output (8 l/s).  You cannot really blame people for using water extravagantly, as we have grown up surrounded by water and some do not believe that this vital liquid can be exhausted. Nowadays the PTAP is working at 3 l/s, thanks to the installation of micrometers that monitor water use.  In the past the storage tank got never fully filled, today it remains fullall the time. 

All this shows that teamwork with institutions and the community is possible and gives very good results. Our experience is a good example. Today I can tell the story of how the quality of life of all inhabitants in La Vorágine has improved.

Chedorlaomer Villa Ospina

Story send for the Story contest originally in Spanish

Ms. Nanu Maiya Giri sharing her expeteince

Earlier to this declaration, villagers were not aware on health and hygiene, and open defecation used to be rampant. After participating in a training programme on School Led Total Sanitation (SLTS), organized by Department of Water Supply and Sewerage (DWSS) and UN Habitat, Nanu Maiya realized the importance of toilet in the surrounding communities of Chuna Devi School. She, thus, shared the knowledge gained from the training with other teaching staffs and her students at school, who later supported her in driving SLTS campaign in and around the school catchment.

The campaign conducted various activities including door to door visit, community orientation, and community consultation in school catchment area covering 278 household that enhanced community awareness on sanitation to the large. It helped the campaigners to convince many of community people, who expressed their interest to have toilet of their own and requested for necessary support.

50 EcoSan toilets

UN Habitat, Nepal Node for Sustainable Sanitation (NNSS) and DWSS came forward to support villagers to construct EcoSan toilets. Altogether 50 units of wet EcoSan toilets were constructed in the village with this support. The extension of these facilities benefited more than 250 inhabitants, who didn’t have toilet facility earlier.

One of the EcoSan toilets

Similarly, two units of urine collection system were installed in the village, one at Chuna Devi Lower Secondary School and another at Centre for Human Resource Development Unit (CHRDU), DWSS for demonstration of urine application. The school collects 4-5 thousand litre urine every month, while around 800 litre urine is collected from the system at CHRDU.

Urine collection tank

The villagers, who had only heard about urine application, started harvesting urine and applying in agriculture to supplement nitrogenous requirement of their cultivation after these constructions. The faeces will also be utilized as a soil conditioner.  These practices helped community people decrease their dependency on chemical fertilizer; taught them the way to utilize human excreta; and helped them to grow organic food. Moreover, it brought behavioural change among villagers; decreased open defecation remarkably and improved health condition by improving environmental sanitation in the communities.

Observing social map at school

It soon impressed other community people, who also started demanding for support to construct toilet at their homes. Responding to their demand, DWSS provided necessary support to the villagers. Additional five units of EcoSan toilet were constructed with this support, while remaining 20 units are under construction.

The success that the campaign gained and the improvement it brought in sanitation situation in these communities motivated Nanu Maiya and other campaigners to increase their dedication in the campaign. They are now making a broad vision to declare Nagarkot VDC as a whole ODF. Therefore, they have recently expanded their catchment area to Pipalbot and Lamatole. They are constructing 40 units of EcoSan toilets in these new communities in their first phase and planning to expand activities gradually.

Story submitted for the Source story contest by UN-Habitat Water for Asian Cities Programme Nepal, E-mail: unhabitat.nepal@unhabitat.org.np