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.
INFO WASH. What Tdh can do with: CHF 250.-
Provide a six-week hygiene education campaign reaching 1’000 children, women and men.
Provide materials for a borehole well (with pump) and water quality testing.
©Tdh - Sri Lanka
CHF 500.-
Examples of results In 2013, Tdh accompanied 858’713 people from 13 countries to access improved water and sanitation infrastructures and to practice safer hygiene. • Support to health clinics in West Africa: Tdh’s mother and child health projects in Burkina Faso, Guinea, Mali and Mauritania reinforced WASH infrastructures and practices in 130 rural and urban health clinics in the past three years. • Disaster Risk reduction infrastructure in Bangladesh: Tdh supported 12 coastal communities under seasonal threat of cyclone storm surges to prevent sea water from contaminating their fresh water ponds. Villagers raised earthen embankments to levels higher than the storm surge of Cyclone Sidr in 2007. For water disinfection, Tdh provided materials and technical expertise to construct pond sand filters atop the embankments. • Support to displaced populations in Columbia: Tdh accompanies three communities displaced by severe flooding in the region of Cordoba. Over 9’000 people benefit from better access to safe water and sanitation infrastructures with a link to Tdh’s activities in mother and child health. • School-led total sanitation in Nepal: Following 12 months of action-oriented research in Nepal, Tdh supports a School-Led Total Sanitation component, whereby schools and the community leaders in the project villages of Salyan District are triggering construction and use of toilets as a new social norm in the community. The initiative synchronises efforts with Government of Nepal’s ‘open defecation free’ initiative at the District level.
A specialist’s point of view “Most of our work as WASH Practitioners goes beyond construction and engineering and focuses on people’s acceptance. We focus on their motivation for and understanding of the technology behind improved water and sanitation interventions. We work with communities to address specific needs arising out of the context of their living environment such as: preventing contamination and depletion of water sources and resilience to disaster. These are crucial for proper operation, maintenance and sustainability of the WASH infrastructures that safeguard both human health and the environment. With adequate infrastructure and good hygiene practices facilitated by relevant and practical interventions targeting behaviour change, young children are protected from harmful microorganisms and toxic substances. If we succeed – especially in their first 24 months of life – children gain an enormous boost to develop to their full potential.”
©Tdh
“Enjoying safe and clean drinking water and sanitation is a universal human right.” Laxman Kharal Chettry, Tdh WASH Regional Advisor for Asia
For more info about our projects : www.tdh.ch Siège | Hauptsitz | Sede | Headquarters Avenue de Montchoisi 15, CH-1006 Lausanne T +41 58 611 06 11, F +41 58 611 06 77 E-Mail: info@tdh.ch, CCP / PCK: 10-11504-8
© Tdh / CKI / 12.2014
Countries of intervention: Bangladesh, Burkina Faso, Columbia, Guinea, Haiti, India, Kenya, Mali, Mauritania, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.