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Promoting Cleaner Drinking Water
In my village of residence, water is drawn by bucket from wells. For most of the year and for most sections of our large village, water is available and accessible – although in the dry season the water table drops significantly, so much so that some wells do dry up and have to be dug deeper (average depth is around 6m).
This is largely a result of the rapid deforestation and erosion of the region; elders will tell of how it has grown ever worse by the year since their youth, especially in the recent past. As erosion and other factors decrease water availability, population pressures (exacerbating the lack of proper sanitation), run-off, and other factors have also decreased water quality: diarrheal illnesses that weren’t formerly problematic are now common, among other contaminants to the water supply. This is specifically a problem at the start of the rainy season, when run-off is high, malaria is rampant (comprising people’s immune systems), and in general people are working more and eating less, planting next year’s rice crop while this year’s runs low.
Achieving Behavior Change
Even when people realize that debilitating diarrheal illnesses – which are often deadly for babies, young children, and the elderly – are transmitted in the water supply and through unsanitary habits, it is still difficult to create healthy behavior change on the village level. It takes more than just convincing people that unseen bacteria and viruses in the water are making them sick; you need to offer simple, affordable strategies and tips, long-term moral support and encouragement, and the means to link “convinced” community members to those who still haven’t changed their normal behaviors.
Keep it Simple!
In my village, we’ve worked hard to educate the community on the benefits of treating their water with Sûr’Eau, a concentrated chlorine solution added to well-drawn water, which kills 99% of diarrheal-illness microbes. Sûr’Eau is produced and marketed by Population Services International – a “social marketing” organization that creates community-health promoting products in developing countries, and a major partner of Peace Corps Volunteers in Madagascar. (See their website: www.psi.org). A (simple!) key is assuring that people respect the proper dose (one capful per 15 liter bucket) and not add too much – which makes the water smell and taste of chlorine and is a strong deterrent to using the product. Through widespread, continued demonstrations and tastings (at village meetings, etc.), a growing number of people in our area are using Sûr’Eau – and we’re also educating to assure that after they treat their water, they take care not to compromise the product’s effects by teaching families to properly cover their storage containers, clean them regularly, not leave water “scoops” floating in the bucket, not drink directly from the scoop, and not let children or anyone with dirty hands scoop water.
This diagram was created to help train incoming Health Peace Corps Volunteers to design their own community education strategies. In so many cases here, so much positive difference can be made without building pumps, mass water storage, or any other high-cost endeavor. Simply adding a hole to the bottom of one’s bucket and adding a spigot (available at hardware stores in any larger town, for less than USD $4) can make a big difference without a big cost, avoiding many of the re-contamination factors – and in my experience, giving people quite a proud sense of having “developed”!
Through small donations, we’ve been able to build or purchase larger water storage containers, and have placed two at the EPP (primary school), two at the CEG (secondary school), one at the local clinic, one at the Mayor’s office, and one at the new community radio station – places where more people gather on a daily on a daily basis, and frequently drawing and treating water is more of a hassle. The largest, most expensive such container (30 liter bucket, one spigot, one tube of super glue) cost less than $15)!
Yet even with all of the small, gradual successes, it’s still a difficult process and incredibly helpful when PSI does something like “The Big Sûr’Eau Game”, a raffle-drawing for large and small prizes for people who purchase Sûr’Eau and correctly answer simple questions about its use. So far we haven’t heard of anyone from our village winning, but we sold over 500 Sûr’Eau bottles during the game’s run!
Community Profits Through PSI
Village associations selling PSI products, earns a small profit from each purchase, which in Antsaravibe we have used towards several other community-health building projects. Notably, last year we were able to finance the entire 25% community contribution for a project we requested through Voahary Salama, a Malagasy NGO helping rural communities to carry out environmentally-sustainable health-promoting efforts. Through the project we installed a solar-powered vaccine fridge and a small light in the local clinic, making it possible to provide vaccinations to children and mothers on a regular basis in our village – one of the Peace Corps Health Sector’s key goals. Another $300 chunk later went towards creating RMA, Radio Meva Ankaraña, our “BIG” project in village to establish a community radio station. The Radio/community center itself is now directly responsible for the sale of PSI products as well as PSI-led community-health trainings, and all sales profits go towards the Radio itself.
It’s fulfilling to be able to help the community I serve to make these positive connections, hopefully lasting ones…
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lilturns |
Latest page update: made by lilturns
, Feb 10 2007, 4:09 AM EST
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added clean drinking water page
- lilturns
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Keyword tags:
Clean Water
potable water
Sanitation
water
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