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Water & Sanitation
Name of the Project: Sanitation and Health
Hygiene Education Facilities Provided to Earthquake Effected Areas.
Funding Organization: Japan International Volunteers Centre (JVC)
Just after the earthquake of October 2005 SAPDO with the collaboration of
Japan International Volunteer Center (JVC) started the emergency and relief
operation in the areas of Battagram, Balakot, Shangla and Kahsmir. Later on
SPADO carried out an assessment of Battagram district and on the basis of
the results of the assessment report initiated a comprehensive sanitation
and health and hygiene education project. The projects activities were later
extended to the Tehsil Allai. This successful partnership will come to its
end in the end of January 2007 because JVC will be winding up its activities
in the earthquake affected areas of Pakistan. More than 1200 Latrine
facilities were provided in the effected areas.
Health and Hygiene Promotion:
Health and hygiene education was also an integral part of the SPADO/JVC
project. SPADO implemented innovative approaches to convey its message to
the general masses which include drawing competitions among school children,
various advocacy and awareness techniques and community gatherings.
Agra Community Sanitation Project:
The selected village “Agra” is a backward mountainous region located 45
kilometers from Batkhela town towards west. According to the preliminary
survey conducted by SPADO the target location has a population of about
14000 souls in which females contribute 50 per cent of the population. The
main source of income of the local communities is Agriculture. The people of
Agra are very poor as the landholdings are very less and due to the
remoteness of the area there are also a great lack of any other economic
opportunities.
Majority of the houses of the area are kacha (mud and stone). The local
population use wood for cooking and heating purposes. In past the hills of
the area were covered by natural vegetations but the increase in local
population created a greater demand for firewood resulted in extensive
cuttings of forest trees and scrubs.
Sanitation:
The sanitation condition of the area was very poor. The poverty coupled
with no primary health care education is causing severe health problems to
the people of the area. There were no proper latrine facilities in hujras
nor in the houses. According to initial survey conducted by SPADO only 3-5 %
of the households have separate latrine facilities. The remaining 95-97 % of
them has no access to such a basic necessity and they use outer fields for
this purpose having no proper disposable facility thus causing severe
sanitation problem to the locality. This poses a serious problem to pregnant
and nursing women as well as to very old and diseased people.
The main objectives of the project were as under:
• To provide a clean and healthy environment to the people of the
project area by constructing 200 latrines in one year
• To improve the quality of life of the residents of village Agra by
providing them health and hygiene education that will ultimately reduce the
flow of epidemic diseases due to poor sanitation
• To create and promote awareness about self-help and self-reliance among
the local communities by establishing and building the capacity of a
community based organization (CBO).
A need assessment survey was carried out to identify the main problems that
the community is facing. During the survey community elders and
representative of the local government were also involved so that once the
funding is secured they may be in a better position to undertake various
activities during the implementation phase. During the survey it was
revealed that sanitation is one of the major problems of the area and that
the local population is in high need of construction of latrines.
The local communities expressed their views that the people of the project
area are poor and cannot afford to construct latrines, thus resulting in
poor health and epidemic diseases in the area. Most of the people keep
domestic animals for their food and income purposes. These animals have no
separate space in their homes and the people share these spaces with animals
for latrine purposes, thus a risk of severe health problems always prevails
in such a contaminated environment. This problem was further aggravated for
women community who could not go out from their houses. SPADO’s findings
reveal that about 95-97 % of the population uses open fields and a part of
their houses for latrine purposes that greatly pollute the environment and
there is a high risk of infectious diseases. The local community recognized
the importance of this facility, but due to their poor economic conditions,
they cannot afford this facility.
Once such basic facilities were provided to the community, they would be
able to spend better lives in this far-flung and isolated village.
During the project period SPADO provided more than 200 sanitation facilities
(Pour Flush Latrines) to the local communities. Along with these facilities
a health and hygiene campaign was also carried out to educate the local
communities about personal health and hygiene.
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