Tamil Nadu: eco‐san toilet promoter Sridharan

Varadharajapuram is a village on the banks of River Kaveri in Thottiyam Block of Tiruchirappalli District, Tamil Nadu, India. Being a water‐logged area because of the closeness to the river, people in the village cannot construct low‐cost toilet models. Except five families, the remaining families were practicing open defecation on the river banks and on the road sides leading to the banana groves.

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.

Everyone has a story to tell

Before starting the story of our community, I would like to introduce myself. My name is Chedorlaomer Villa I am 34 years old, and  live in The Maelstrom, small town of Pance, Cali, Colombia.  I work as plumber and I am responsible for carrying out maintenance at the drinking water plant (PTAP) and the wastewater treatment plant (PTARD). We are a privileged community in that today we have drinking water and a system of to process wastewater, perhaps the oldest such system in the municipality.

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.

Nepal: EcoSan toilet promotional campaign spreads in Nagarkot

Ms. Nanu Maiya Giri, principal of Chuna Devi Lower Secondary School appreciates the effort of her community people proudly. She claims that it’s their dedication that turned the catchment area of school into a total sanitation zone. According to her, after prolonged dedication the Magar tole, Danda Gaunt tole, Kuwa Pani tole, Ghising tole and Gairi Gaun of Nagarkot Village Development Committee (VDC) were declared Open Defecation Free (ODF) on 25 December, 2010 in Nagarkot.

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.

Contest: Tell us a story – for pride and a prize

In 2011 E-Source is once again looking for stories about communities and interventions that helped (or failed!) to improve the sanitation and hygiene situation. Such stories provide valuable lessons from WASH experiences and practices.

Each story should identify a problem or situation, the key interventions and the outcomes and should, whenever possible, be accompanied by a picture.

Bring recognition for a particular intervention in your community

Getting your story published will let you share your experiences with others around the world, will establish you as author and bring recognition for a particular intervention in your community. They will also be of value to E-Source in broadening our coverage.

Celebrating community management of water in Cochabamba

We have just celebrated four years of community management of our water supply in this part of Cochabamba. It is a celebration not of perfection but of hard work; not a story with a happy ending, but a story where we meet the continual challenges.

Lack of water is a constant problem in the Southern zone of Cochabamba since the water network from the public company Semapa does not reach us.  We could perhaps have managed to attract a project to bring us water supply, but it would take a long time and we feared that we would be disregarded by the authorities. So we followed the path that some neighbours have taken to organise themselves and form a water committee to tackle the lack of drinking water.

Our Community Association for Drinking Water and Sanitation was formed on April 22 2007, as a public service community association with charitable status. Its primary purpose is to administrate, operate and maintain the drinking water system and keep it clean. This association has managed to supply water to the districts between the rivers, Trafalgar, Santa Fe and part of Bello Horizonte (Villa Payer-District 14), about 45 minutes bus ride from the city centre.

To solve the problems in my community we needed to clear the route dig, clean and put the whole thing together. This community effort was the only way to obtain good results.

Northern Cameroun: Bucket chlorination for treatment of epidemic cholera

In the far North province of Cameroun, several villages received a treatment called: “Bucket’s chlorination”. During this chlorination, sample of water are analyzed and the results are recorded in notebooks. In this report the data of water were compiled and an average of consumption by person was established[1] This article resumes those activities: the “bucket’s chlorination” and the average consumption, see summary below.

‘I am not Nobody now’

I am Amai (Mother) Toriro. This is the story of how my life changed when I became a health club member. In 1995, I was dumped by my husband. He left me with 7 children and went to the city. He had another wife but after six years she died of AIDS and he came back to his rural home for me to look after him. When he came back six years later our home had changed. He told me to take down the rooms I had built as he did not approve of my design. But the members from the health club came and helped to defend me and in the end he agreed to keeping my house the way I had made it. Two years later he died and I kept on by myself supporting my family.  My husband left me with nothing;

At first I was in difficult times as we had no money, until I joined the Community Health Club started by Zimbabwe AHEAD Organisation and we were taught how to self realise. We called our club ‘Rujeko’ meaning Light!  I attended the health sessions every week for six months and learnt about so many things. It gave me light to understand how to prevent diarrhoea, bilharzia, malaria, skin diseases, worms, even HIV/AIDS but most of all how to care for our family with good hygiene. I completed all 20 health lessons and graduated with my certificate in 1996.  The next year my children and I dug a pit latrine and our own deep well. Later I put in a handpump on the well from the money I earned. I became the Chairperson for our club in 1998.