Asia: leadership for sanitation needed at both central and local level
Updated - Monday 13 February 2012
Updated - Monday 13 February 2012
The responsibility for sanitation in Asia is fragmented over different agencies, and in most cases the priority given to sanitation is low. Therefore more leadership and political will is needed to make sure that organisational structures function, that plans with good intentions become a reality on the ground and that resources go to the right places. While leadership for sanitation is needed at all levels, it’s most urgent at sub national level, in districts and provinces, because it’s there where the actions take place.
This is the outcome of an email discussion [1] of the WASH Asia Dgroup platform held from 9 August to 9 September 2011. The discussion was moderated by the SNV Asia knowledge network and IRC International Water and Sanitation Centre, and involved 120 WASH practitioners from 5 different countries in Asia.
After the Dgroup discussion, a regional workshop [2] was organised around the same topic in Surkhet, Nepal, from, 13 to 17 September 2011, followed two days later by a discussion meeting [3] co-organised by the Ministry of Physical Planning and Works (MPPW) of Nepal.
Table on Leadership Roles from the Asia Workshop report (http://www.source.irc.nl/var/irc/storage/images/media/wp_imports/leadership_roles_jpg_w_500_038_h_257/805710-1-eng-GB/leadership_roles_jpg_w_500_038_h_257.jpg)
The group discussion is the third on rural sanitation and hygiene. The first discussed “Performance Monitoring of Sanitation and Hygiene Behaviour Change” [4] and the second was about “Rural Sanitation Supply Chains and Finance” [5]. All topics are learning components of the Sustainable Sanitation and Hygiene for All (SSH4A) programme in Nepal, Bhutan, Laos, Viet Nam and Cambodia. This programme is funded by the bilateral aid agencies of Australia (AusAID), the United Kingdom (DFID) and The Netherlands (DGIS) and private donors. SNV Netherlands Development Organisation, IRC and local partners in the five countries are implementing the SSH4A programme, which is running from 2008 to 2015.
(QT) - Due to the custom of not building latrines but open defecation, the ethnic people Vân kiều – Pa kô in the mountainous district of Hướng Hóa, Quang Tri province have been suffering from diseases of diahrea, malaria and scabies for past years... With Plan support to implement CLTS projects in 4 communes of Húc, Thanh, A Xing, Xy to change behaviors which hep local popele to be aware of latrine and changing hygien behavior's importance .
Monitoring the latrine quality in Xy La village, xã Xy, huyện Hướng Hóa.
We joined the team of commune staff from Quảng Ninh district, Quảng Bình province and Hướng Hóa CPM who monitored and learned from the CLTS model in Xy La village, Xy commune, Hướng Hóa district. Mr. Cù Giặc Hiền, acting head of Xy health station said that some years ago the local people had habit of open defecation, raising animal husbandry near their houses and water resources. Human and animal excrement can be flowed by rain to water sources and the people use such water so they can easily infected with diseases, even some died due to malaria.
Chương trình CLTS đã tập trung vào việc tổ chức các khoá tập huấn và truyền thông cho người dân địa phương về vệ sinh cá nhân, vệ sinh môi trường và hướng dẫn xây dựng một số mô hình nhà vệ sinh phù hợp. Ban đầu, người dân không mấy hào hứng và không muốn thay đổi thói quen sinh hoạt, nhưng khi được cán bộ y tế giải thích nguyên nhân những căn bệnh mà bà con thường gặp là do thiếu ý thức giữ gìn vệ sinh cá nhân, ngoài ra những lớp tập huấn ngoài trời với những ví dụ sinh động và sát thực tế đã giúp người dân hiểu rõ và quyết tâm thực hiện. Anh Hồ Văn Miên sống ở thôn Xy La cho biết: "Từ khi làm nhà vệ sinh và xây dựng chuồng trại cho vật nuôi, gia đình tôi ít mắc bệnh, mùi hôi thối cũng giảm hẳn. Sắp tới có tiền, tôi sẽ nâng cấp nhà vệ sinh cho chắc chắn hơn".
Mặc dù chương trình chỉ hỗ trợ kỹ thuật xây dựng và cấp xà phòng miễn phí cho bà con rửa tay, còn lại chi phí xây dựng hoàn toàn do người dân chi trả, nhưng tất cả các hộ trong 2 thôn của xã Xy đều hài lòng về hiệu quả chương trình. Nhiều hộ dân thuộc các thôn bản khác cũng đã đến học tập và áp dụng tại hộ gia đình của mình. Ông Hồ A Rơi, trưởng thôn XyCreo, xã Xy bày tỏ: "Nhận thấy sự thay đổi của thôn Xy La, bà con thôn XyCreo rất muốn học tập mô hình xây dựng nhà vệ sinh. Sắp tới, chương trình sẽ đến với thôn, nhà nào cũng sẽ ủng hộ và làm theo".
Hiện tại, những thôn triển khai chương trình CLTS thuộc 4 xã Húc, Thanh, A Xing, Xy thì 100% hộ dân đã xây dựng nhà vệ sinh theo đúng mô hình của chương trình.
Anh Võ Minh Phương, cán bộ TTYT huyện Hướng Hóa, thành viên BQL chương trình CLTS nói: "Sắp tới chương trình sẽ tiếp tục triển khai ở toàn bộ các thôn bản 4 xã Húc, Thanh, A Xing, Xy. Chương trình sẽ tiếp tục vận động các hộ làm nhà vệ sinh, cải tiến các loại hình nhà vệ sinh phù hợp hơn."
Bài, ảnh: LÂM HƯNG THƠ, http://www.baoquangtri.vn/default.aspx?TabID=88&;modid=391&ItemID=52518
The national contest on creative works on "I love clean water and sanitation for the community's health and mine" was lauched in June to 15 September 2011. By the deadline fo the works submission, the organizers reveived 19.234 works from 20 provinces from North, Cetral and South. The works are diversified by pupils, students, ordanizations working on RWSS including:
- Paintings: 18.553
- Pictures: 597
- Posters: 58
- Video Clip: 26 clip
1. Inception round:
- Paintings: 300
- Pictures: 40
- Posters: 5
- Video Clip: 5 clip
2. Final round:
- 04 First prizes
- 05 Collective prizes
- 01 Third prizes
Available online 13 December 2011.
Started in 2007, the Sanitation Hygiene Education and Water Supply in Bangladesh (SHEWA-B) project aims to improve the hygiene, sanitation and water supply for 20 million people in Bangladesh, and thus reduce disease among this population. This paper assesses the effectiveness of SHEWA-B on changing behaviors and reducing diarrhea and respiratory illness among children < 5 years of age. We assessed behaviors at baseline in 2007 and after 6 months and 18 months by conducting structured observation of handwashing behavior in 500 intervention and 500 control households. In addition we conducted spot checks of water and sanitation facilities in 850 intervention and 850 control households. We also collected monthly data on diarrhea and respiratory illness from 500 intervention and 500 control households from October 2007 to September 2009. Participants washed their hands with soap < 3% of the time around food related events in both intervention and control households at baseline and after 18 months. Washing both hands with soap or ash after cleaning a child's anus increased from 22% to 36%, and no access to a latrine decreased from 10% to 6.8% from baseline to 18 months. The prevalence of diarrhea and respiratory illness, among children <5 years of age were similar in intervention and control communities throughout the study. This large scale sanitation, hygiene and water improvement programme resulted in improvements in a few of its targeted behaviors, but these modest behavior changes have not yet resulted in a measurable reduction in childhood diarrhea and respiratory illness.
RWSS NTP 2011-2015 support agreement between TPBS donors (United Kingdom, Denmark and Australia) and Minister of Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development – Signing Ceremony was held at MARD on 12/1/2012.
The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development organize the 9th Meeting of the Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Partnership (RWSS Partnership) Steering Committee on 12th January 2012 at MARD, 2 Ngoc Ha, Hanoi.
Ministry of Agriculture and Rural DevelopmentRWSSP Coordinatin Unit Address: Room 303-304, Building A8, 10 Nguyen Cong Hoan, Ba Dinh, Hanoi, VietnamTel: 84 (04) 37711420 / 21/ 22 - Email: pcu@rwssp.org.vn |
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