During the month of April 2016, a survey was conducted to every household in Jitpur Phedi as a part of the Water Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) -project. Here data was collected about sanitation facilities, open defecation prevalence and compliance with basic hygienic principles like hand-washing and cleaning of toilets.
The results revealed that 23 % of the households do not have permanent toilets, that the open defecation prevalence is 7 % and that there are very big issues when it comes to hygiene – only half of the toilets are clean, a big part of the households do not have a brush, cleaner or even water present near the toilet. Furthermore most people declare to practice hand-washing, but only around half of the households actually have soap present.
Based on these detected issues, we went to do WASH-campaigns in some of the most vulnerable communities. When talking to the local people participating we recorded the following issues:
Nangedada:
- The campaign had 15-20 participants. Mainly housewives.
- They reported to know how to wash hands and that was confirmed in the demonstration.
- They knew about the importance of having permanent toilets and about bacterial spread. They had also heard about the SODIS method, but none of them applied it.
- They reported issues on water shortage in the village, and they stated that this is the main problem preveting them from cleaning their toilets and practicing good hygiene.
Pachmane Roadside:
- The campaign had 15-20 participants. Mainly the men in the village.
- They knew about bacterial spread, but did not have much knowledge about hygiene. They had heard about the SODIS method, but none applied it.
Pachmane Height:
- The campaign had 10 participants. Mainly the women in the village.
- They did not know about bacterial spread, but they did know about proper hand-washing techniques. They had heard about the SODIS method, but had been told that it was not effective, so they did not want to apply it even though we explained about the safety of the method.
Lower Dadagaun:
- The campaigns had 10-15 participants. Mainly the women in the village.
- They did not know about bacterial spread, some women knew about proper hand-washing techniques.
- They reported major issues with water availability. They have to carry it far from upper Dadagaun, and it is only available a couple of hours a day. They had a problem with a damaged pipe in the most remote villages, and so water shortage was their main issue. Most of them did not have soap or Harpic available. They did not seem to fully understand the importance of soap even though we did our best to make them aware about it.
In general conducting the campaigns gave the impression, that a lack of awareness is not necessarily the biggest issue – water supply however is. It is therefore recommended for VIN to focus more on the water shortage issues these communities face, because this might be the biggest obstacle for good hygiene and therefore health. The villagers very often report that they would like to keep a good hygiene, but with the limited water they have, they are not going to prioritize the cleaning and flushing of toilets over e.g. having enough water for drinking, cooking, washing of clothes etc.
It could therefore be interesting to compare the results of the WASH-report, that was made based on the survey, with the results from the report on drinking water quality that is currently being conducted by other volunteers in ward 8. Compartments could be made on how hygiene status, open defecation prevalence, water availability, water quality as well as disease occurrence correlate in order to evaluate the importance of each factor.
Furthermore, it is worth considering whether the design of the WASH-campaigns are good enough at implementing actual hygienic behavior. When conducting the campaigns, it seemed as if most of the information was already known to them, but we also know based on the survey that they do not apply this knowledge in their actual behavior. When asking them why they do not apply the SODIS method for example, the reasons are usually that it is too difficult, they do not have bottles available and they would rather drink the contaminated water than the warm water they would get from the SODIS method. When asking them why they do not buy and use soap and Harpic, they say that is too expensive or that they do not prioritize it.
In general the campaigns therefore gave the impression, that it is very difficult to make the villagers aware of exactly how important it is for them to work towards a better hygiene. They have the knowledge, but they do not consider it important enough to change their behavior. Work therefore needs to be done to find ways of improving the format of the WASH-campaigns – or to find completely different approaches.