Progress and Challenges of Sanitation Services Among Fishing Communities in Ukerewe District, Tanzania
This case study documents the experiences of Population and Development Initiative (PDI) and Civil Society Organisation partners working to improve sanitation and hygiene within fishing communities in Ukerewe District, Mwanza Region, Tanzania. Addressing entrenched attitudes and social beliefs, behaviour change campaigns were designed to overcome traditional beliefs around sanitation and fishing, with adaptations made for remote island communities. The case study explains how they worked with fishing unions and communities to increase participation and collaboration in sanitation activities, and advocated for a range of stakeholders and local government duty bearers to increase prioritisation of sanitation.
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Progress and Challenges of Sanitation Services Among Mining Communities in Geita district, Tanzania
This case study documents the experiences of Population and Development Initiative (PDI) and Civil Society Organisation partners working to improve sanitation and hygiene within mining communities in Geita District in north-west Tanzania. Artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) activities in the district started in the early 1990s and the district is now home to more than 480,000 small scale miners from across the country living in mobile communities with minimal sanitation facilities. This case study documents interventions led by PDI, The International Peace Information Service and partners to work with government stakeholders, miners, mine associations and other local stakeholders to advocate and raise awareness for improved sanitation for mining communities. Successful adaptations included repeated engagement with miners and mining associations to raise awareness and train agents of change for social accountability advocacy efforts with duty bearers. Addressing entrenched attitudes and social beliefs around open defecation, tailored behaviour change campaigns were developed and local by-laws were strategically leveraged.
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Water Security and Dignified Sanitation in Rural Amazonia Furo Grande, Belem, Brazil
This case study documents experiences from a 10-year project working with a remote island community along the Furo Grande tributary, just off the coast of Belem in the Amazonian region of Brazil. The residents living along Furo Grande experience extreme poverty and social marginalisation, and mainly use latrines which empty directly into the river, or defecate in the forest, which is dangerous particularly for women and girls at night. Successful programme interventions included community engagement and collaborative processes to build trust and relationships with the people, and enable development of designs that respected local cultures, beliefs and routines of the traditional population. Adaptations included development of ecological toilets and rainwater harvesting systems, redesigning the structure to ensure suitability for high tides and flooding, changes to materials, for example the type of wood to prevent rotting, and adaptations to the construction process to utilise local building techniques. Ongoing monitoring enabled challenges to be identified and rectified, and provision of support to communities to strengthen understanding on how to maintain the new facilities.
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Temporary and Permanent Sanitation in Flood Relief Camps and Communities, Pakistan
This case study documents efforts following the devastating 2022 floods in Pakistan, where unprecedented torrential rains triggered massive floods which affected the areas of Sindh, Baluchistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and South Punjab. This case study focuses on the temporary and permanent arrangements for the rehabilitation and rebuilding of sanitation facilities in these affected areas. It details the sanitation arrangements made in temporary flood relief camps, including development and distribution of menstrual hygiene kits and development of awareness campaigns to overcome social reluctance to use them. Successful adaptations included engaging female workers and volunteers to address the privacy concerns of women and misconception about menstrual hygiene products; conducting awareness campaigns to promote the usage of latrines and discourage the practice of open defecation particularly amongst men. Communication barriers were overcome through engagement with community representatives or leaders and village committees.
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Improving Sanitation Services in Tough Physical Environments, Kirfi Local Government Authority, Nigeria
This case study documents WaterAid Nigeria’s Strengthening Water Sanitation and Hygiene Delivery Systems (SWADS) project in Kirfi Local Government Area (LGA), Bauchi State between 2017-2019, as part of the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation (HSBC) Water Programme II. The case study shares how adaptations to their implementation strategy were made to overcome challenges of sandy, loose soil in remote communities, which made traditional pit toilets vulnerable to collapse and issues with installation of new improved models, with reports of toilets sinking after only a few days. Markets were also weak, with Toilet Business Owners and masons struggling to transport toilets and construction materials to these communities, raising the costs for communities with high rates of poverty. Adaptations included introducing an offset pit, as well as a pit lining – although the latter increased toilet costs. The concrete slab was also split into four pieces to make it smaller for easy transportation, which fit together during construction. To address affordability challenges, which were found to be more acute during the rainy season, Village Savings and Loans Association schemes were introduced to encourage communal savings. Key recommendations included undertaking context analysis of topography, to understand challenges that might arise in constructing and installing different toilet technologies and come up with any necessary adaptions. Including this analysis early on can mitigate risk of unsuitable or unsafe toilets being constructed at the expense of households.
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Improving Sanitation and Hygiene in Farmers and Herders’ Communities: Case Study in North-central Nigeria
This case study documents experiences from a project working in communities in Plateau and Nasarawa states, Nigeria, where there are fragile relationships between farmers and herders and a history of violent clashes. The conflict between farmers and herders has been fuelled by a struggle for resource control and ownership of land and water. The nomadic nature of the herders makes it easy for them to move from one place to another, while the farmers are more stable. Some herders move to an entirely different location, while others move during rainy seasons and come back during the dry season. This movement makes room for friction between the farmers and the herders because when herders come back, the farmers might have converted the places they previously lived into farmlands. The movement also affects the herders’ beliefs on using toilets and open defecation – most of them practice open defecation because they feel there is no need to dig toilets as they are highly mobile. Additionally, the farmers can interpret digging toilets as an indication of land grabbing.
The case study details findings from health workshops which were conducted with groups of farmers and herders, providing opportunity for the groups to discuss issues separately and together, advocate for the need for everyone to have access to an improved latrine to enable health benefits, and collectively agree community action plans to improve sanitation.
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Mapping Rural Communities in Conflict Areas, Colombia
This case study documents an intervention by Tierra Grata to identify, map and improve access to safe sanitation in remote undocumented rural communities, where armed groups formed through internal conflict have been present for over 50 years. Through leveraging a mix of community networks, word-of-mouth, social networks such as Facebook and WhatsApp, and working with stakeholders already active in target areas, Tierra Grata began to identify previously unmapped, unknown communities. The case study also documents efforts to build trust with these communities who had been victims of armed conflict and felt abandoned by government. A combination of approaches was used. Face-to-face participatory approaches were used to understand the way communities live, who they are, and the sanitation challenges they face. Collaboration with existing actors in the area such as academics and civil society organizations was key to establishing trust and access. Whilst strategic use of digital tools enabled data analysis and mapping of findings. Through combining these approaches, a rich body of evidence was created on the specific needs of the communities, informing future sanitation interventions and enabling them to be adjusted and implemented accordingly.
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Making Inclusion Meaningful: The Human Centred Design Approach to Building Latrines for People with Disabilities in Vanuatu
This case study documents findings from the Laetem Dak Kona (LDK) Project which was implemented by World Vision Vanuatu and partners in the two northernmost provinces of Vanuatu (Sanma and Torba), with funding from the Australian Government’s Water for Women Fund. The focus of this study is on efforts to improve inclusion and wellbeing of people with disabilities in Vanuatu. Actions were taken to uncover taboos and unspoken challenges faced by people with disabilities in Vanuatu to raise awareness, acceptance, inclusion and the voices of people with disabilities and other vulnerable groups at the grass roots level. Successful adaptations included adopting a human-centred design approach that focussed on developing sanitation facilities which met the individual needs of people with disabilities and their families and included them in the decision- making process. Sufficient budget was allocated to ensure increased costs were covered, such as multiple visits to target sites, as well as transportation of materials required. Purposeful recruitment of people with disabilities on the project team made a difference to the engagement and acceptance of people with disabilities in target communities. Development of a range of knowledge sharing behaviour change communication resources such as talking books was particularly useful in the target communities with low literacy levels.
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Achieving Safely Managed Sanitation in Riverine and Island Communities in Sierra Leone
It is estimated that over one million preventable deaths occur each year caused by diarrhoeal diseases due to unsafe sanitation, hygiene and drinking water. In Sierra Leone, access to sanitation is the 8th lowest in any country worldwide. In rural areas only an estimated 37.9 per cent use an improve sanitation facility and 26 per cent practice open defecation, contributing to multiple health, economic and social challenges. This SLH Learning Brief shares findings from research undertaken with Welthungerhilfe in remote riverine and island communities in Bonthe District, a district that has double the national open defecation rate and distinct physical and social conditions that challenge the achievement and sustainability of sanitation services.
Using a range of participatory research methods, the research engaged participants within communities, district and national government stakeholders and market actors to explore the current state of sanitation infrastructure and use, identifying barriers people are facing to adoption and their knowledge, awareness and cost of different sanitation options in the market. The learning brief also presents new ideas, opportunities and recommendations proposed by stakeholders to improve access through improving infrastructure, reducing costs, data and evidence needed and ongoing community and meso-level engagement in these challenging contexts.
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