NEPAL: Naming and shaming open defecation offenders
SIDDHIPUR, 23 August 2010 (IRIN) – In the fight against disease and child mortality, Nepal has been using some unusual tactics to get people to stop defecating in the open (forrette deres nødtørft i det fri).
Children blow whistles at offenders and post name-and-shame flags in fresh, stinking piles; NGOs help communities turn their waste into “humanure” (menneske-gødning) for crops; and one women’s group “calculated” how much waste tainted (inficerede/besmittede) the food supply.
– We told the community, “If we do not make proper toilets, it is like we are all eating our faeces (afføring), said Saraswati Maharjam, a member of the sanitation and hygiene education team in Siddhipur village on the outskirts of Kathmandu.
– In one year, we are eating 2 kg of faeces, and this is if you live far from the public toilet. If you are near the public toilet, it is even more, Maharjam said, referring to the rough estimate her women’s group came up with to scare neighbours into building toilets.
Open defecation is a major problem in Nepal. According to the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), only about 46 percent of Nepalese have latrines in their homes – and in the least developed districts in the west, that figure drops to 25 percent.
– Open defecation causes water contamination and gastrointestinal (mave) diseases, said Ravi Kafle, a surveillance medical officer with the World Health Organization (WHO) in the mid-western city of Nepalgunj.
– The main problem in the hill region is if someone defecates near the river and it rains, then it mixes with the water and people downhill drink contaminated water, added he.
Madhav Pahari, a specialist in water, sanitation and hygiene for UNICEF in Nepal, said 37.000 under five deaths were reported in 2008 – 14 percent of which were because of diarrhoea (diarre), one symptom of water-borne diseases.
A diarrhoea outbreak during the 2009 rainy season caused almost 59.000 people in the mid and far western regions of Nepal to fall ill and claimed more than 300 lives, according to WHO.
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