Area of Focus: Tsunami Reconstruction
Partnership agencies: Habit for Humanity, and World Toilet Organization
Conceptualised & Initiated by Lien Foundation
The Lien Foundation played the role of a convenor for the US-based NGO Habit for Humanity (HFH), and Singapore-based World Toilet Organization (WTO) in a project to rebuild 25 houses and 50 toilets in tsunami-stricken Sri Lanka.
For HFH, it was very much a continuation of its home-building programme for the poor in developing countries. In fact, the NGO was already working in the area prior to the disaster, and was therefore quick with the tsunami reconstruction. For WTO, the project fitted well within its mission to raise awareness of proper sanitation, clean water supplies and disease prevention. It was also a good opportunity to transfer know-how to the communities to ensure sustainable rehabilitation.
“The local people would often go to the forest or beach to relieve themselves, or six to eight families may share toilet facilities”, says Jack Sim, founder of WTO. The hole-in-the-ground latrine pits often led excreta directly into the ground water, thus contaminating the villagers’ own water supplies. According to UNICEF, about 80 per cent of Sri Lankan children suffer from diarrhoea every year, and one in five still do not have access to clean toilets¹.
The WTO, through its member organisations, worked with local authorities to raise awareness of hygiene, and the health risks posed by existing, inadequate sanitation systems. In a pilot project in Thotagamuwa, the WTO built a cost-effective toilet system comprising a toilet house, plastic septic tank and vertical filter. The design, which is replicable, flexible, and easily adaptable to available space and landscape, has since been used in other villages and locations like Mandana.
Singapore’s national daily The Straits Times² reported villager Mdm Devamuni Tarangani, one of the first beneficiaries of the HFH-WTO home-and-toilet, saying: “My children used to get diarrhoea at least once month, but since we got the new toilet, they have been fine.” Her five-year old was earlier hospitalised for two weeks due to a particularly severe bout of diarrhoea. Mdm Devamuni has two other children aged three and 10.
The HFH and WTO also completed a project at the Boys’ Orphanage of Ramakrishna Mission, which had sought assistance to improve their toilet and gardening operations.
The WTO replaced the orphanage’s original open-air toilet to a covered facility to protect the boys from the elements. The toilet was also fitted with proper porcelain urinals. The liquid waste flows through a pipe and is collected in air-tight containers; it will be used as liquid fertiliser for the Mission’s vegetable and fruit gardens.
The simple but innovative concept was able to fulfil both the requests of the Home – for better sanitation, and to harness human waste to fertilise their gardens.
The WTO team in Sri Lanka raised awareness of hygiene, proper sanitation systems and access to clean water. Additionally, it initiated interest in new sanitation concepts, and (potentially) spawned the production of facility components/parts in the market. In the longer term, this would lead to reliable supply, lower costs and more jobs for the locals.
Following the success of this project, organisations including the HFH Sri Lanka
and World Vision have requested follow-up training programmes from WTO for their
staff. The Red Cross has also committed over S$900,000 to build 13 public toilets
in tsunami-hit Aceh, using a replicable model from WTO.
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