Kiribati’s North Tarawa declared first open defecation free island in the Pacific

Everyone on North Tarawa now has access to improved sanitation. Photo: ABC Radio Australia / UNICEF Pacific.

North Tarawa in Kiribati is the first island in the Pacific to be declared open defecation free, thanks to the “Kiriwatsan I Project”. The Ministry of Public Works is implementing this project with technical support from UNICEF and funding from the European Union.

North Tarawa is made up of a string of islets with a combined population of 6,102 (2010) and a land area of 15.26 sq.km.  Previously about 64 per cent of people used the beaches and mangroves for defecation and dumping their rubbish.

UNICEF spokeswoman Nuzhat Shahzadi says that diarrhoeal diseases cause 15 per cent of the deaths of children under five in Kiribati.

In March 2013, North Tarawa adopted the Community-Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) approach following a training of trainers course conducted by Dr Kamal Kar. The CLTS pioneer wrote that he had convinced Kiribati President Anote Tong to set December 2015 as the target date for the whole nation to become open defecation free.

The villagers of North Tarawa dig shallow pits and use local materials like brick and coconut leaves to build the toilet superstructure. They keep water and soap in one corner. After using the toilet, the villagers sprinkle ash to stop the smell and flies getting in, and then keep it covered.

Ms Shahzadi said that the women and girls were very happy that no longer have to go out on the beach in the middle of the night if they need to use the toilet.

Source: UNICEF, 11 May 2013 ; Radio New Zealand International, 13 May 2013 ; ABC Radio Australia, 14 May 2013

India, Bihar: rapes ’caused by lack of toilets’

Map showing frequency & severity of violence against
women in Bhalswa slum, Delhi. Shirley Lennon/SHARE.

The lack of safe toilets for women and girls is often linked to an increased risk of sexual harassment and rape. Earlier studies [1] from Kenya, Uganda and India, and now a recent BBC news item are some of the few sources to actually quantify this risk.

Senior police official Arvind Pandey from the Indian state of Bihar told the BBC that 400 women would have “escaped” rape in 2012 if they had toilets in their homes. The rapes take place when women go outside to defecate early in the morning and late evening. These “sanitation-related” rapes make up nearly half of the more than 870 cases of rape in Bihar in 2012.

The BBC news item lists three specific cases:

• On 5 May, an 11-year-old girl was raped in Mai village in Jehanabad district when she was going to the field at night
• On 28 April, a young girl was abducted and raped when she had gone out to defecate in an open field in Kalapur village in Naubatpur, 35km (21 miles) from the state capital, Patna
• On 24 April, another girl was raped in similar circumstances on a farm in Chaunniya village in Sheikhpura district. She told the police that two villagers had followed and raped her. One of them has been arrested

In Bihar , 75.8% of homes have no toilet facilities (Census 2011). Some 49% of the households without a toilet wanted one for “safety and security” for women and children, according to a study by Population Service International (PSI),   Monitor Deloitte and Water for People.

[1] Heise, L., 2013. Danger, disgust and indignity : women’s perception of sanitation in informal settlements. Powerpoint presented at “Making connections: Women, sanitation and health”, 29 April 2013, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM). Video version available at:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AS9ulpJqh7s

Related news:

• Request for Proposals: The effects of poor sanitation on women and girls in India, Sanitation Updates, 07 Mar 2013
• India, Delhi: how sexual violence against women is linked to water and sanitation, E-Source, 27 Mar 2012

Source: Amarnath Tewary, BBC, 09 May 2013

 

100 issues of the WASHplus Weekly – March 2011 to May 4, 2013

Below are links to the past 100 issues of the WASHplus Weekly on various sanitation and other topics. We welcome suggestions on how to make the Weekly more useful.

2013

• May 4: Water & Food Security
• Apr 26: Focus on Cookstoves & the Environment
• Apr 19: Focus on Handwashing
• Apr 12: Focus on Financing WASH Services
• Apr 5:  Focus on Urban Sanitation
• Mar 29: Focus on Household Air Pollution
• Mar 21: Focus on World Water Day 2013
• Mar 15: Focus on WASH Sustainability
• Mar 8: Focus on Gender Issues
• Feb 22: Focus on Sanitation Marketing
• Feb 15: Focus on Household Water Treatment & Safe Storage
• Feb 8: Focus on Neglected Tropical Diseases
• Feb 1: Focus on Cookstove Stacking
• Jan 25: Focus on WASH & Maternal Health
• Jan 18: Focus on Post-2015 MDG Goals
• Jan 11: Focus on WASH and Environmental Conservation

2012

• Dec 21: Focus on HAP & the Global Burden of Disease
• Dec 14: Focus on Community-Led Total Sanitation
• Dec 7: Focus on Water Kiosks
• Nov 30: Focus on Fecal Sludge Management
• Nov 16: Focus on World Toilet Day 2012
• Nov 9: Focus on World Pneumonia Day 2012
• Nov 2: Focus on Water Conflicts
• Oct 26: Focus on Climate Change
• Oct 19: Focus on Waste Pickers
• Oct 12: Focus on Global Handwashing Day 2012
• Oct 5: Focus on Water Technologies
• Sept 28: Focus on WASH & Household Energy Entrepreneurs
• Sept 14: Focus on Household Water Treatment & Safe Storage
• Sept 7: Focus on WASH & Child Survival

Rose George – Reflections on menstrual hygiene management

Published on May 3, 2013 - Presentation by Rose George (journalist and author of ‘The Big Necessity’ http://www.rosegeorge.com) at “Making connections: Women, sanitation and health” event.

Review of the Health and Social Effects of Menstrual Hygiene Management

A Systematic Review of the Health and Social Effects of Menstrual Hygiene Management. PLoS ONE 8(4) 2013.

• Full text

Sumpter C, Torondel B

Background – Differing approaches to menstrual hygiene management (MHM) have been associated with a wide range of health and psycho-social outcomes in lower income settings. This paper systematically collates, summarizes and critically appraises the available evidence. 

Methods – Following the PRISMA guidelines a structured search strategy was used to identify articles investigating the effects of MHM on health and psycho-social outcomes. The search was conducted in May 2012 and had no date limit. Data was extracted and quality of methodology was independently assessed by two researchers. Where no measure of effect was provided, but sufficient data were available to calculate one, this was undertaken. Meta-analysis was conducted where sufficient data were available.

Results – 14 articles were identified which looked at health outcomes, primarily reproductive tract infections (RTI). 11 articles were identified investigating associations between MHM, social restrictions and school attendance. MHM was found to be associated with RTI in 7 papers. Methodologies however varied greatly and overall quality was low. Meta-analysis of a subset of studies found no association between confirmed bacterial vaginosis and MHM (OR: 1.07, 95% CI: 0.52–2.24). No other substantial associations with health outcomes were found. Although there was good evidence that educational interventions can improve MHM practices and reduce social restrictions there was no quantitative evidence that improvements in management methods reduce school absenteeism.

Conclusion – The management of menstruation presents significant challenges for women in lower income settings; the effect of poor MHM however remains unclear. It is plausible that MHM can affect the reproductive tract but the specific infections, the strength of effect, and the route of transmission, remain unclear. There is a gap in the evidence for high quality randomised intervention studies which combine hardware and software interventions, in particular for better understanding the nuanced effect improving MHM may have on girls’ attendance at school

What have the Romans and aid every done for anyone? Apart from clean water, sanitation and …

Inspired by Monty Python’s “What have Romans every done for us” scene – (“Apart from sanitation, the aqueducts and roads” …), Save the Children have released a mock anti-aid video called “What Has Aid Ever Done For Anyone? Apart from…”.

Arguably, the Romans were more successful than the aid sector, if we consider the recalculated global estimates for safe water and sanitation.

Matt Damon continues his global crusade for toilets

As a follow-up to his “toilet strike” last month, actor Matt Damon narrates a new water.org video promoting sanitation and clean water that was released on  World Water Day.

 “Quick, what invention saved the most lives in human history? The answer is the can, the john, the porcelain throne, the bog, the foreign office, the Thomas crapper. That’s right, the toilet,” says Damon. “Whatever you choose to call it, the toilet not only provides a tranquil escape from nagging bosses, spouses and children, it’s also a fast and sanitary way to dispose of waste separate from the water we drink and bathe in.”

The spot ends with a plea to donate to Water.org, the charity co-founded by Matt Damon and Gary White. Despite contradictory evidence, the water.org site continues to state that “only $25 brings one person clean water for life“.

Source: Degen Pener, Hollywood Reporter, 22 March 2013

BRAC WASH offers to help half a million Indian imams promote hygiene

On WaterCouch.tv, Rabbi Awraham Soetendorp shares a practical example of international water cooperation that emerged during the 2013 World Water Day celebrations in The Hague, The Netherlands. In one of the sessions, BRAC WASH programme director Dr Babar Kabir explained that his programme had trained 18,000 imams in Bangladesh to include hygiene messages in their Friday prayers (see Kabir, 2010).

Imam Umer Ahmed Ilyasi

Also present in The Hague was Iman Umer Ahmed Ilyasi, Chief Imam of the All India Organization of Imams of Mosques, “the largest and oldest imam organization of the world”.  Dr Kabir and the Chief Imam “agreed to cooperate on education for water and sanitation”. This cooperation has the potential to create “five hundred thousand new teachers” to spread hygiene messages all over India.

Kabir, B. et al., 2010. The role of imams and different institution[s] in hygiene promotion of BRAC WASH programme : paper presented at the South Asia Hygiene Practitioners Workshop, Dhaka, Bangladesh, 1 to 4 February 2010.  The Hague, The Netherlands: IRC International Water and Sanitation Centre. Available at: www.irc.nl/page/51613

WASH training for imams in Bangladesh. Photo: Masjid Council

Water and sanitation crusader killed in Karachi attack

OPP-RTI Director Perveen Rahman. Photo: NPR / Dawn

Perveen Rahman, director of the Orangi Pilot Project Research and Training Institute (OPP-RTI), was shot dead in Karachi, Pakistan, on Wednesday 13 March 2013. The internationally acclaimed and widely replicated project that she led, succeeded in bringing low-cost sanitation to Karachi’s Orangi squatter community of 1 million people.

Ms Rahman’s associates believe her death was linked to her work on exposing Karachi’s land grabbing and water mafia. The police suspect Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) militants of being behind the killing. The Express Tribune reports that Ms Rahman had also worked in a Taliban-controlled area in Karachi.

International Women’s Day in Asia: celebrating women in sanitation

In a new video, Mayadevi and Kaman (Nepal),  Toan and Thinh (VietNam) and  Tshering, Drukda, Tashi and Deschen (Bhutan) share stories about women’s participation, leadership and their changing roles in promoting sanitation and hygiene in  Nepal, Bhutan and Viet Nam.

The video is from SNV’s Sustainable Sanitation and Hygiene for All Programme (SSH4A), which has been implemented by local governments and partners in 17 districts across Nepal, Bhutan, Laos, Viet Nam and Cambodia since 2008. It aims to provide one million people with access to improved hygiene and sanitation facilities by the end of 2015. As the approach aims at addressing access to sanitation for all, addressing gender issues and inequalities is key.

SSH4A is a partnership between SNV, the Governments of the Netherlands, Nepal, Bhutan, Laos, Viet Nam and Cambodia in Asia and the IRC International Water and Sanitation Centre with support from AusAID and DFID.

Learn more about SSH4A at www.snvworld.org/node/3779 and www.irc.nl/ssh4a

In Bangladesh, IRC is supporting BRAC  to measure behavioural change in the   BRAC  WASH II programme. Christine Sijbesma of IRC International Water and Sanitation Centre and Mahjabeen Ahmed of the BRAC share their thoughts and experiences with monitoring sanitation and hygiene behaviour of women in the programme in a recent blog post [1].

The QIS monitoring system that is being used gives special attention to gender and sanitation. First because many of the indicators differentiate between women and men. Secondly because data collection for each sample is duplicated by a male and a female monitoring team.  Interestingly, preliminary results show that virtually all the male and female monitoring teams members gave the same scores for the gender indicators.

[1] Bangladeshi women catch up on sanitation, IRC, 08 March 2013