INFO WASH.
© Tdh / J.-L. Marchina - India
Drinking water, sanitation and hygiene education in emergency and long-term contexts
The current situation: 1.8 billion people use a source of drinking water that suffers from faecal contamination - over 80% of whom live in Africa and Asia. 2.5 billion people do not use an adequate sanitation facility—of whom one billion defecate in the open. Almost 90 per cent of child deaths from diarrhoeal diseases (760,000) are directly linked to contaminated water, lack of sanitation, or inadequate hygiene.
(Sources: UNICEF & Tropical Medicine International Health)
Terre des hommes (Tdh) integrates Water Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) interventions to enhance its mother and child health projects and response to emergencies. Terre des hommes’ activities in the WASH sector : Preventing malnutrition in South Asia In parts of Bangladesh and India where high rates of malnutrition threaten early childhood development, Tdh strives to prevent the environmental causes of disease that lead to malnutrition. Thanks to baseline studies, Tdh tailors hygiene awareness messages according to each community’s existing practices. Special focus is given to proper hand washing at critical moments, drinking water, safe disposal of faeces, food hygiene and cleanliness of the child’s home environment. Boosting WASH effectiveness in government facilities in West Africa The Foundation supports health and education authorities to improve safe water and sanitation facilities in health clinics and schools. Tdh works with health authorities to ensure a minimum standard of infrastructure and safe practices for water supply and disposal of waste and excreta. The cleanliness of these facilities not only stops the spread of disease, it augments respect for and use of essential public health services.
Sanitation solutions in challenging environments The risk for latrines to contaminate groundwater and spread disease is especially pronounced in flood-prone areas. Since 2008, Tdh has researched and trialed designs for “Ecosan” toilets in India and Bangladesh. By separating fluids, adding ash to excreta, and storing for 6-12 months, the Ecosan toilet process yields a compost that is safe and useful for homestead agriculture. Since 2011, Terre des hommes is a member of the Swiss Water and Sanitation NGO Consortium sponsored by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation.