My WASH intervention failure and what I learnt from it.
In 2019 while working with MAMADO we had a project in Kilolo district in Iringa region Tanzania, this project was about to contribute in achieving improvements in health in Tanzania through the improvement of sanitation and hygiene in Kilolo district.
Kilolo district ahs 24 wards, 110 villages and 540 sub-villages, our task was encourage people to build improved latrines and stop open deification as well as hygiene practices promotion in all district and its sub villages. It was a tough task since it was only to be performed with 4 MAMADO staff with the help from the district health officers and LGAs.
In our 10 months of work 30 villages out of 110 were declared ODF, some of the villages didn’t qualify to become ODF due to poor institutions (Schools, hospitals) WASH facilities where all households had improved latrines. The case study that I personally declare as failure is what happened to us in KIMARA village.
Kimara village was among 10 villages we had in our second milestone our goal was to ensure all people in these ten villages stop open deification improving their latrines and promote hygiene practices including handwashing. we used different methodologies to ensure people are changing, we use promotional events like sports, Village meetings, house to house visits and so forth.
After three months many people built improved latrines including Kimara village, but surprisingly most of people in Kimara village they were not using the improved latrines instead they either open deification or used their traditional latrines. We witnessed this situation during our external verification to select villages with ODF status, Kimara village didn’t qualify because people built latrines but they were not using them instead they open deification.
After external verification ended we agreed to conduct village meeting in Kimara village, we wanted to learn why people built improved latrines but they still go to poo in open areas or in their traditional latrines. We were informed Kimara village had water crisis, there did not have enough water, they built improved latrines (Mostly flush toilets) but they did not have access to water. it was difficult to use their improved latrines without water, that is why most of them decided to open deification or using traditional latrines.
We failed to understand the nature of the village so that we could proposed the best and suitable latrine type, especially latrines that does not use a lot of water. this was the failure during our intervention in Kimara village. but the good news is in July 2020 Kimara village declared as ODF this was after the installation of the water systems in their village that at large solve their puzzle of water crisis.
This failure taught us two important lessons to our future WASH interventions.
First, we cannot separate Water from sanitation and hygiene promotion, water is playing the greater role in making sure these two sanitation and Hygiene are well performed with in the community. you cannot built a hand washing facility in your community if you don’t have access to water. It is also difficult to maintain improved latrines and general cleanliness if you do not have access to clean an safe water, that is why we cannot separate these three organs. Water projects should be priotize to areas with improve latrines or both should go hand in hand.
Secondly, To study the nature of the community before intervention is the best way of achieving desired deliverables. We failed Kimara because we did not learn that the village had water crisis, we could propose better options like improved latrines that does not use a lot of water or Tip Tap as hand washing facility option because it does not require a lot of water.
