ODF VERIFICATION IN WESTERN EQUATORIA STATE (WES)

In October 2012Open Defecation Free (ODF) verification was done in 14 villages in Western Equatoria State. These are villages that had been facilitated by one of UNICEF’s partners, Intersos. 10 of the villages had claimed to have attained ODF status and this provided a rationale for conducting the verification.

CLTS was introduced in the state last year in October 2011through a training facilitated by Plan International and sponsored by UNICEF. A number of organizations send representatives to participate in the training. However, it seems that Intersos has been much more active than the others in implementation of the methodology.

Prior to the verification there was a meeting between staff from Intersos and the State Ministry of Physical infrastructure, in which it developed an elaborate plan for conducting the verification. The plan included training of the verification team. It was the first time that this kind of exercise was taking place in the country. Furthermore taking into account that a total 14 villages were to be verified, it was important that there wassufficient personnel, and also ensure that they go through proper training so that the exercise is not bungled. The team also wanted to create a clear benchmark that subsequent verification exercises would need to measure up to.

A total of 23 people were identified to undergo the training. They were from the State Ministry of Physical Infrastructure, Intersos, the National Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation, UNICEF and secondary school graduates. The team was therefore fairly representative. Attempts had been made to bring on board representatives from other INGOs working in Western Equatoria State but this could not work. The reason being that since the exercise would go on for two weeks continuously; most NGOs felt that it would be impossible for them to release their staff for such a long time when there were other competing and equally important activities going on in their respective organizations.

The training of the team involved taking them through how to conduct the verification. The key questions that needed to be addressed during the exercise were:-

  1. Do all households dispose of their fecal matter safely in a latrine?
  2. Are all the latrines properly maintained? That is; are they clean- no feces outside the holes; do the pits have a cover?
  3. Are there any human feces openly within the environment of the village? E.g in the bushes, plantations and within the compounds of the village or other places that people are likely to go for open defecation.

To ensure that the verification is properly conducted the following issues were emphasized.

  1. The word Total in CLTS implies that all persons/households within the village must practice safe disposal of the fecal matter. This therefore means that the verification process should cover all the households within the village. The verification exercise was therefore expected to cover all the households within the village.
  2. CLTS does not prescribe or recommend any type of latrine to the communities. The communities have a free choice to determine what type of latrine is suitable to them based on their available resources. What is essential is that the latrine should enable the household to safely dispose of their fecal matter. Each household should therefore have a latrine/s that they use for defecation.
  3. An ODF environment requires that all human feces should be safely disposed off. These include children feces. There is a misconception amongst some people that children’s feces is harmless and therefore does not pose any danger to the communities. The reverse is true! The verification exercise should therefore confirm that children feces are safely disposed off. Parents/caretakers should be able to confirm that they routinely dispose of their children feces in the latrines whenever the children defecate in the open.
  4. The verification process should equally confirm that that previous active open defecation sites have become inactive within the village. Common previous active defecation sites may include :-
  • Around the houses/homes or behind the houses/homes coppices
  • Within the bushes/plantations within the village
  • Near the boreholes/shallow wells and other water sources within the village

Verification outcome

The actual verification was done for period of two weeks. It was tedious exercise that involved walking door to door and covering entire households in each village. Some of the villages were big and sparsely populated, and households far apart. For instance, some households were between 200 and 300 meters away from each other.Covering all the households in such villages was physically demanding. It is a credit to the verification team that they were committed to their work throughout the process.

At the end of the exercise a total of 14 villages had been verified and 4 of them found to be ODF. It was clear that most the villages had recorded high standards of latrine coverage, with a majority of them having over 90% latrine coverage. There are two villages which had latrine coverage of 100% but were denied the ODF status because a number of latrines were found to be poorly maintained and or did not have pit covers.

Verification summary table

VILLAGE / COUNTY / STATE / # of HH / HH WITH LATRINES / % Latrine coverage / ODF STATUS
Nangbimo / Nzara / WES / 83 / 83 / 100 / ODF
Nambia / Yambio / WES / 44 / 44 / 100 / ODF
Nagero / Yambio / WES / 50 / 31 / 62 / NOT ODF
Nayure / Yambio / WES / 87 / 86 / 98.9 / NOT ODF
Nanzari / Yambio / WES / 41 / 34 / 82.9 / NOT ODF
Diatoro / Yambio / WES / 122 / 120 / 98.4 / NOT ODF
Kasia / Yambio / WES / 68 / 68 / 100 / ODF
Bodo / Yambio / WES / 45 / 41 / 91.1 / NOT ODF
Bajumburu / Yambio / WES / 37 / 35 / 94.6 / NOT ODF
Kisaki / Yambio / WES / 76 / 76 / 100 / ODF
Nanduro / Nzara / WES / 31 / 31 / 100 / NOT ODF
Nayure / Nzara / WES / 70 / 70 / 100 / NOT ODF
Ngbambia / Nzara / WES / 36 / 35 / 97.2 / NOT ODF
Mangondi / Nzara / WES / 64 / 62 / 96.9 / NOT ODF
Nakiri / Yambio / WES / 173 / 161 / 93.1 / NOT ODF

ODF Villages

When the exercise was concluded, the following villages were declared ODF

  • Nangbimo
  • Nambia
  • Kasia
  • Kisaki

Even though two other villages, that isNayure and Nanduro had 100% latrine coverage, they were denied the ODF status because some of the latrines were poorly maintained and feces was found outside the latrine holes. There were also other latrines that did not have the pit covers.

The remaining villagesdid not qualify for ODF status after the verification teams established that not all the households had latrines, and some of the existing latrines were not well maintained.

At the end of verification exercise in each village, a meeting was held with the village representatives to provide them with the feedback of the verification outcome, and on areas that required further improvements.

Observations

  • The villages had active CLTS committees that contributed to the improved sanitation situation in the two counties.
  • The latrines were constructed from locally available materials. In some instances, they had striking similarities with their dwelling units.
  • Basic hand washing facilities were present in most of the households, and through interviews, they confirmed the practice of hand washing after visiting the latrines.
  • Both men and women are actively involved in construction of latrines and promoting proper hygiene and sanitation practices in the community.

The verification team was satisfied that CLTS was gaining root in Western Equatoria State and it could positively contribute to scaling up sanitation coverage in the area. It was also apparent that more regular monitoring and verification would motivate the villages to speed up their pace for achieving ODF.