Rehabilitation Project
A day in Shihingo Village starts early in the morning at around 6 am when the community members wake up for different chores. These range from preparing breakfast, preparing kids to go to school, fetching water from the spring, and going to the farm for plowing, weeding, or harvesting because farming is the backbone of this community. Most household chores in this community are done by the women.
The culture here limits men from other household chores like washing utensils or cooking in the presence of a woman. That means women and young children are those going out to find the water their families need.
Their main source of water is an open water source called Inzuka Spring. The water here bubbles up from the ground and is exposed to all kinds of contamination.
Animals are free to come and go, and the water’s even worse after the rain washes contaminants down the banks and into the water. Community members also dunk their containers directly into the water – they’re able to hold a container under the surface until about half full and then use a smaller jug to fill the rest of the larger container.
This dirty water isn’t only dangerous to drink, but is time-consuming to fetch, too!
After water is carried back home, it is poured into a larger 50 to 100-liter barrel to be used for drinking, cooking, and cleaning throughout the rest of the day.
Some 240 people living in this part of Shihingo Village rely on the dirty water from Inzuka Spring.
What we can do:
“Sanitation and hygiene here is wanting. Most of the community members lack essential facilities like pit latrines, dish racks for utensils, and compost pits for dumping refuse,” said Mr. Musirwa.
“We will be so grateful if you assist us to protect this spring and the package of sanitation platforms will improve sanitation and hygiene in our community.”
Spring Protection
Protecting the spring will ensure that the water is safe, adequate and secure. Construction will keep surface runoff and other contaminants out of the water. With the community’s high involvement in the process, there should be a good sense of responsibility and ownership for the new clean water source.
Fetching water is predominantly a female role, done by both women and young girls. Protecting the spring and offering training and support will, therefore, help empower the female members of the community by giving them more time and efforts to engage and invest in income-generating activities.
Training
Community members will attend hygiene and sanitation training for at least two days. This training will ensure participants have the knowledge they need about healthy practices and their importance. The facilitator plans to use PHAST (Participatory Hygiene and Sanitation Transformation), CLTS (Community-Led Total Sanitation), ABCD (Asset-Based Community Development), group discussions, handouts, and demonstrations at the spring. One of the most important topics we plan to cover is the handling, storage, and treatment of water. Having a clean water source will be extremely helpful, but it is useless if water gets contaminated by the time it’s consumed.
Training will also result in the formation of a committee that will oversee operations and maintenance at the spring. They will enforce proper behavior around the spring and delegate tasks that will help preserve the site, such as building a fence and digging proper drainage. The fence will keep out destructive animals, and the drainage will keep the area’s mosquito population at a minimum.
Sanitation Platforms
At least half of the community members in Shihingo Village have pit latrines made of different materials like twigs, mud, and iron sheets. These pit latrines are in bad states; cleanliness is not regular because the base of these pits are made from wooden logs and washing them regularly with water causes them to rot.
On the final day of training, participants will select five families that should most benefit from new latrine floors.
Training will also inform the community and selected families on what they need to contribute to make this project a success. They must mobilize locally available materials, such as bricks, clean sand, hardcore, and ballast. The five families chosen for sanitation platforms must prepare by sinking a pit for the sanitation platforms to be placed over. All community members must work together to make sure that accommodations and food are always provided for the work teams.
