Banishing bad hygiene in rural Kenya
3 February 2009
Diarrhoea,
vomiting, intestinal worms - to say nothing of bad smells and air pollution.
These were just a way of life for the people of Jaribuni, south-eastern Kenya,
before the arrival of the new latrines.
The latrines, built by the villagers themselves, with support from DFID and the development agency Plan, are part of new, zero tolerance approach to unsanitary toilet habits in the village.
Understanding sanitation
In the past, with toilet facilities very thin on the ground, people would use the most convenient alternatives instead: the bushes surrounding their houses. Unsurprisingly, many locals, especially children, were hit by serious infections - but due to a lack of education, they didn't see the link.
To kick off the Plan/DFID project, villagers were tasked with drawing up a map highlighting the major areas of open defecation. They then took a closer look at these hot-spots, working out how much faecal waste was being generated and identifying the routes - flies, chickens, flash floods - by which waste products were finding their way back into households.
Having
gained a better understanding of village toilet habits, and the health costs
attached to them, the villagers set about digging leaf-covered latrines where
waste could be safely disposed of.
Huge improvements
The latrines were simple to construct, but introducing them to Jaribuni wasn't all straightforward. A ban on in-laws sharing toilet facilities had prevented latrines being used before, but this was by-passed by building more than one latrine for each household. Also, the hard rock floor of the village presented a challenge to the villagers' tools. Water therefore had to be carefully soaked into the ground to make it amenable to digging.
Despite these hurdles, within three months pit latrines had been dug for all of the village's 40 homes - a huge improvement on the three that existed before. The next stage saw an external verification team inspect all the local households, as well as the local bushes. Finding that the latrines were being used well, and that the bushes were free of waste matter, the team awarded Jaribuni Open Defecation Free (ODF) status in late 2007. It is a title that the villagers are keen to hold on to - anyone who defecates in the open can now be expected to be "named and shamed".
Featured prominently in Kenya's World Toilet Day celebrations in 2007, Jaribuni's success is now spurring the Kenyan government into backing other sanitation projects. And the villagers themselves are continuing to do their bit for sanitation, by spreading their new-found knowledge to the villages next door.
Facts and stats
- The project was funded through Plan International’s Partner Programme Arrangement (PPA) with DFID. It is costing US $54,000 over a two-year period up to June 2010.
- Plan's PPA provides £7.1 million between 2008 and 2011.
- Jaribuni village is located in Kilifi District and has a population of 650. The success of the scheme in Jaribuni has motivated Plan and the Ministry of Health to scale-up and cover the entire district. As of 30 June 2008, 22 villages were involved.
- Latrine coverage is 33% along Kenya's coastal belt and only 15% in the hinterlands. Most people therefore defecate in the open. The child mortality rate is 141 in every 1,000, due to communicable diseases like diarrhoea.
