Project Complete: Latrines in Sokar Village

by Najaf Shah

The Sokar Village sanitation project, aimed at reducing the incidence of sanitation-related and water-borne diseases in Sokar, Kashmir, was recently completed.

The project primarily entailed the construction of 60 latrines and a concurrent sanitation education campaign designed to help Sokar’s 350 residents transition from open-defecation to more hygienic sanitation practices centered on using latrines. ADP’s partner NGO, HEED (Health Education, Environment Development), carried out the project and has submitted detailed reports describing the final phase of construction and the results of two latrine-usage surveys. Details are given below, but to summarize, ADP and HEED are pleased to report that the latrines have been successfully constructed and the project’s over-arching goal of improving sanitation practices in the community has been largely accomplished.

Three months after the final construction phase, a team of HEED representatives and members of the local sanitation committee visited each latrine and conducted a basic usage survey. The survey found about 67% of the latrines (40/60) to be in good working condition, with about half of the resident population reporting high or better usage. While these short-term results were quite encouraging when considered in the context of similar sanitation projects, the HEED team devised a plan to significantly improve usage rates by addressing several key problem areas it identified.

Numbers indicated in parentheses;Complete, high, medium, and low denote approximately 100%, 75%, 50%, and <20% usage.

Problem Areas

Among the families reporting low usage, about 40% cited water unavailability and about 30% cited incomplete construction as primary reasons. The former was primarily due not to a technical problem but to a social conflict which led to the interruption of water supply to certain parts of the village. The latter was in large part due to some latrines not having proper doors installed: to encourage community ownership, HEED required the resident families to participate in the construction and to procure certain materials, which some families had not done to the extent expected. Moreover, most of the infrequently-used latrines were constructed in the final phase and are located at a higher elevation, and hence may have escaped checks and training sessions conducted by HEED.

Addressing the Issues

To improve usage rates, HEED has focused on a few key aspects.

First, the water supply damage that occurred due to the local conflict has been repaired with the pipes and other requisite materials purchased by the community members themselves, and the conflict itself has been amicably resolved; thus, HEED has successfully addressed the primary inhibitor of higher latrine usage.

Second, HEED’s staff provided direct technical assistance to families with incomplete latrines, specifically helping them with the installation of doors, connection of pipes, etc.

Third, to further promote hygiene practices, HEED mobilized four trained hygiene promoters and the village WASH committee, focusing particularly on families whose latrines found to be below hygiene expectations in the first survey. HEED also conducted an additional session in Tahira Primary School to refresh the students’ knowledge of basic hygiene practices.

These measures were followed up with another detailed survey, the second since project completion, in which 96% of the latrines (58/60) were identified as being in good working condition. Going forward, HEED has devised a plan for further improving latrine utilization which includes more hygiene training sessions, detailed and regular inspection of latrines by the hygiene promoters and the WASH committee, and rewards for families with the best-maintained latrines.

During the evaluation phase, our team recognized that post-construction the success of this project would depend in large part on the extent to which Sokar residents use the latrines instead of open defecation. Our experience with this project has reinforced our view that affecting a significant behavior change is perhaps the most challenging aspect of sanitation and other related projects. On this and other points, HEED has done a commendable job, and we at ADP our encouraged by the inroads they have made towards improved sanitation and better health for the residents of Sokar Village.