VILLAGE WITHOUT TOILETS FOR 78 YEARS……………
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By Mwenya Mukuka
‘You think it is embarrassing, no, young man. Everyone here, whether your in-laws are around or not, the nearby bush you are seeing was our ‘toilet’ for 78 years because putting up a toilet was not in our mind. And we never regarded it as important’ Village headman Chipande of chief Choongo’s chiefdom of Southern Province said.
Set up in 1930 North of Monze district, Chiipande Village with a population of 283 people has had not toilets since 1930. This came to light when Journalists were taken on a conducted tour by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).
‘The toilets were not important, all we did was to take a hole as though you are going to the field and along the way defecate and come back, but we never thought the absence of toilets was the reason for the diarrhoea diseases my people suffered’ The Village headman Chiipande explained.
The village headman Chiipande however said the coming of the Community Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) his subjects are now changing attitude towards the open defecation.
Community Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) is an approach which facilitates a process of empowering local communities to stop open defection and to build and use toilets without the support of any hardware subsidy.
According Febby Busiku senior programmes officer who is Monze Water AID, CLTS is based on the concept of self respect rather than on standards or health.
‘Usually, sector professionals place emphasis on engineering standards or construction quality, and the need for subsidy for the rural people’ Ms. Busiku said.
Busiku explained that CLTS challenges such norms by placing emphasis on community dynamics and individual perceptions and emotions as drivers of sanitation provision by communities themselves.
And Chiipande village secretary Mambo Maila said since the introduction of toilets with the held of water –AID though Development of People from People to People (DAPP) every household has a toilet.
‘We are so grateful for the help because we now have clean water and each household has a toilet resulting in a reduction of diseases’ he said.
Despite having had no toilets for the last 78 years, Chipande people at Chiipande village have now leant that improved disposal of human waste protects the quality of drinking water sources.
It was leant that more than 200 million tones of faeces and vast quantities of waste water and solid waste go uncollected and untreated around the world, fouling the environment and exposing millions of people to disease and squalor.
The year 2008 has been set as the international year of Sanitation therefore it should be used to highlight that sanitation enhances dignity, privacy and safety, especially for women and girls.
It improves convenience and social status. Sanitation in schools enables children, especially girls reaching puberty, to remain in the educational system. Restricted toilet opportunities increase the chance of chronic constipation and is making women vulnerable to violence if they are forced to defecate during nightfall and in secluded areas. Providing improved sanitation facilities is a liberating development for women and girls and is providing substantial benefits for the whole community.
And recently during the official opening the media awareness workshop on Sanitation and Hygiene at the Intercontinental Hotel, Local government and Housing Minister Sylvia Masebo said that access to basic sanitation is a centerpiece for poverty eradications.
‘The target to halve the proportion of people without access to basic sanitation by 2015 will not be achieved if people have no access to good sanitation’ Ms. Masebo said.
According to the central Statistical office’s living conditions monitoring survey of 2005, more that 30 percent population did not use toilet facility of any kind representing two million people or more or more than 350 thousand households.
‘The challenge for improved sanitation is our ability to convince the households that toilets are an important and inevitable part of the house and that personal health and wellbeing is dependent on the proper and regular use of the clean and secure facilities’ Masebo said.
She further urged the media effect issue based Journalism by highlighting issues that affect the lives of the people like access to adequate sanitation.
The Community Led Total Sanitation first piloted in Twelve communities of Choma in November 2007 has seen the overall increase of pit latrines from 23 percent to 88 percent for the population of 4, 536 people. In one community it increased from 0 percent to 93 percent, while in another in increased from 14 percent to 102 percent.
Choma mayor Geoffrey Makaya noted that the sheer increase in the number of toilets and achievement of open defecation status within such a short period was significant, especially as the programme took place during the wettest time of the year, when traditionally no construction takes place and further called on traditional leaders to embrace the new concept of improved sanitation being piloted in the district with the support of UNICEF.
‘Improved sanitation will reduce the incidence of diseases and thereby improve the quality of life of the people’ Mayor Makaya said.The Millennium Development will not be met if people lack access to sanitation. Poor sanitation will result in degraded environment that will result in diseases resulting in people absconding from work and deaths.
Everyone should be aware and get involved in delivery of sanitation as we observe the 2008 as the year for sanitation.
4 Responses to “VILLAGE WITHOUT TOILETS FOR 78 YEARS……………”
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nancy Says:
June 18th, 2008 at 11:26 amA good article but misinforming, especially on the approach being implemented in Chipande Village in Monze District.
Community Based Total Sanitation (CBTS)and not Community Led Total Sanitation (CLTS)is being promoted by WaterAid in partnership with DAPP in Chipande Village in Monze, while CLTS was piloted in Choma in Chief Macha’s area and is being promoted by UNICEF.
There are fundamental differences between the two approaches which perhaps could be the focus of a future article.
We commend you for your effort in promoting sanitation issues.
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