How foundation tackle open defecation using pet bottles

 

By Aisha Gambo

Hannatu Ismail like any regular house wife needed clean water to cook food and do house chores. Her four children who are supposed to be in school are sent to get water from the village stream early in the morning.

 

“Before we find the water and do whatever we want to do,the children will be late for school, because we don’t have water that we can use early.

 

“Sometimes they can’t go to school because we cannot find the water quickly for us to use”,she says

 

Even after all the sacrifice, the stream water isn’t clean and safe for drinking .

Hannatu Ismail fetching water from a stream in Womio.

According to a 2019 survey by the National Bureau of Statistics,only nine per cent of the population have access to complete basic Water Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) services and those living in rural areas are two times more disadvantaged than those in urban areas.

 

In another report, approximately 60 million Nigerians were living without access to basic drinking water,80 million people had no access to improved sanitation facilities, while 167 million have no access to basic hand washing facilities.

 

It is a well known fact that unsafe water, inadequate sanitation and poor hygiene affects good health playing a crucial role in spreading diseases like cholera, diarrhea and typhoid.

 

Hannatu like any other residents of Womio, a small community in Sabo Anagada, Gwagwalada Area Council, Abuja complained that her children had diarrhoea due to the water they consumed.

 

The village head of Womio, Muhammadu Haruna, confirmed incidence of disease outbreak in his community.

 

He said the water they got from the stream isn’t hygienic adding that people who consume the water usually suffer from vomitting and diarrhoea with blood particles seen in their excretion.

Village head of Womio

 

The practice of Open defecation

Open defecation has become a norm in the community as villagers defecate in nearby bushes due to unavailability of toilet facility.

 

They do not build toilets in their houses, they only find a space they can take their bath and ease themselves in bushes.

 

“If you just enter the area you will see faeces everywhere,we don’t have water,we fetch from the stream which is mostly dirty.

 

“When you enter the community, you will see feaces everywhere which attract mosquitoes and flies that cause malaria and cholera respectively “,she said.

 

 

Members of Rockians Foundation constructing a toilet.

 

WASH intervention in Womio

Womio village had two boreholes commissioned by the government ,but it was not functioning due to some fault it developed while on use. This situation made members of the community to resort back to their old ways of getting water, the stream.

 

 

Due to the critical condition of Womio community, a Non- Governmental Organisation ,Rockians Medical Foundation rehabilitated a hand pump borehole and constructed a four unit toilets.

 

Villagers at the rehabilitated hand pump.

 

Martins Marvin, Chairman of the foundation stated that the plight of not having clean water and decent sanitation and hygiene facility led to the foundation’s intervention in the community.

 

“We were able to restructure their already existing bore hole;We did not stop there we also had to take it further by strengthening the wash practices in this village.

 

 

“So we had to also raise a sanitation facility, public toilet because we noticed that all of them did not have private facilities that they are using in their homes”,he said.

 

Building with bottles

Womio resident participating in building the bottle toilet.

 

The four units public toilets built by the foundation was not an ordinary toilet. It was built using pet bottles filled with sand which was used as building blocks for the project.

 

“We call it the “CLEAR ” village project, meaning; Community Learn Environmental Awareness and Recycling. Because, it’s not just a project that will help to strengthen the wash practices in the village.

 

“It is by providing a safe and healthy space for women to carry out their extra hygiene and also to help eradicate open defecation in the village “,he said.

Staff of the foundation painting the toilet.

 

He said that community members supported the project by helping in filling the pet bottles with sand and sweeping the premises.

 

 

Villagers can now access WASH facility

 

After a long period of distance walk to get water, the unhygienic nature of the water and the practice of open defecation , the people of Womio can now access clean drinking water and ease themselves in proper toilet facility.

 

Haruna, stated that since the hand pump was rehabilitated, his people have been enjoying relatively gPpood health.

 

He added that members of the community as well as visitors from neighbouring village come to ease theirselves in the toilets.

 

Hannatu, whose children went to school late and sometimes miss school due to unavailability of portable clean water are now going to school early and even had breakfast before going.

 

“My children and I don’t need to go to the stream to get water, I can now access clean water to cook, drink and do other house chores .

 

“Now my children don’t get sick as frequent as before and the feaces we usually see everywhere has reduced due to the use of the newly constructed toilets “,she said.

 

 

 

 

 

Sustaining the intervention

 

Lack of maintenance attitude towards a given project or intervention in a community has been the major reason some intervention fail.

 

This made Rokian Medical Foundation to sensitise the villagers on the need to properly maintain and take care of the toilets while also educating them on the importance of taking ownership of the project.

 

Executives of the foundation presenting certificate to Womio village head.

 

“We ensure that we engaged the community leaders to educate them on step by step proces of keeping the facility clean .

 

“We urged the village head,youth leader and women leader to come up with a roster for cleaning the toilets; the foundation would be conducting a routine check in the community to ensure that the facility is clean”,he said.

 

The village head explained that whenever a facility gets faulty,he would call his people and inform them on the need to make contributions so that they can make repairs.

 

He said villagers were using the toilets adding that anyone who wanted to use it must come along with water for cleaning while a roster for cleaning the toilet on ground.

 

 

Ease cut short

 

As people of Womio celebrate having clean water supply from the rehabilitated hand pump, their happiness is cut short one more time. This is because the only source of clean water in community keeps developing fault after a month or two use.

 

The villagers attributed the incessant fault to over use saying it is the only functional pump serving the whole community.

 

Mr Samuel Nuhu, the youth leader of the community said , the single hand pump was not enough for a community of more than 3,000 population .

 

He added that whenever the pump gets spoilt, people suffer to get water with some going back to the streams while others buy water.

 

According to him, residents of the area can not afford to contribute for the maintenance of the facility urging government and other non governmental organisation to bring more borehole that would reach everyone.

 

Women leader of the community, Hajara Adamu who commended the foundation for its effort stated that said the hand pump has developed fault for the third time since repair.

 

A situation that led the villagers to buy water from a neighbouring village at exorbitant price.

 

“We are back to square one, suffering again; one bucket is N100, what about those that don’t have money? How would they fend?

 

“We will appreciate it if more boreholes would be constructed to ease our suffering”,she said.

 

Room for improvement

 

The four units toilets constructed has helped reduced open defecation in the community. However, residents of Womio want more.

 

The village head of Womio commended Rockians Medical Foundation for the project saying it has helped both men and women access toilet facility.

 

He urged government and other stakeholders to assist them build more toilets adding that some residents’ houses were far from the toilet,a situation making them go back to open defecation.

 

Similarly, Nuhu added that water was not connected to the toilets saying that the villagers had to get water from the pump before using the toilets.

 

 

He says , water connection in the toilets would help keep the environment clean and safe.

 

However, the chairman of the foundation stated that inadequate finance played a major in limitations of the project.

 

He explained that members of the foundation tasked themselves and volunteer with the little they could get in ensuring people have access to clean water and their health improved.(NAN)

**If used, credit the writer and the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN)

***This story is with the support of the Solutions Journalism Network (SJN) and Nigeria Health Watch (NHW).