Improvements made to community water supplies and sanitation facilities at schools, coupled with WASH education, encourages school attendance and sustains family health year-round.
Northern Uganda is rebounding after 20 years of oppression and civil war. With the return of peace, communities are rebuilding and embracing opportunities for growth and development. However, water, sanitation and hygiene are needed to sustain healthy communities and improve the quality of life for families. Lira District exhibits some of Uganda's worst health indicators. For example, Lira District government health center data from June 2013 shows 69% of disease cases recorded were WASH related infections and illnesses. Although access to safe water is increasing, sources are not equally distributed, leaving no alternative but to drink from ponds or unprotected springs. Latrine coverage at households is gaining but high-levels of environmental contamination negatively impacts community health, especially during the rainy season.
School enrollment in Lira sub-county Uganda has increased in recent years due to universal primary education and an increase in cultural awareness on the importance of education for girls and young women. However, many conditions still limit school attendance by students in Uganda.
According to a recent sample of five local schools, an average of 35 % of the students missed school due to some form of illness during the rainy season. Records show water-borne diseases including dysentery, diarrhea and typhoid fever as common illnesses, primarily attributed to poor hygiene and sanitation practices in households and schools.
Another limiting factor for school attendance by girls is the lack of sufficient hygiene and sanitation facilities at schools. Because of a shortage of latrines and a lack of privacy, the drop-out rate among girls is high during monthly menstrual periods.
Lifewater and its implementing partner Divine Waters Uganda provide WASH services in northern Uganda, benefiting 130,000 people with safe water and providing WASH education to more than 70,000 people in the past five years. Training Water and Sanitation Committees ensures governance and sustainability.
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Better Health through WASH in Lira District Uganda
To be named, Fall 2013, Uganda
Direct beneficiaries include community members who benefit from increased access to an improved water source from a drilled well with a hand pump. Community governance committees fence the pump and receive training in water system management, advocacy for gender diversity, and operations and maintenance. Secondary beneficiaries are counted as number of people over 500 who also receive benefits from the water supply, but who may not get the recommended daily allotment of 15 l/day.
This project will target latrine construction at one of the schools near the community receiving water.
Community members will participate in hygiene education programs through community venues, utilizing adult education, and through children's WASH programs implemented at the school. This approach has shown to reinforce the knowledge learned by children and adults, resulting in a great opportunity for behavior change in hygiene practices.
Lifewater will follow a proven integrative strategy to provide WASH to one community and the surrounding area, including one school. Objectives include:
* Improve access to safe water for use by school and community members by drilling one borehole and installing a hand pump. The well site will be fenced, and water quality tested according to the government requirements.
* Educate school children in WASH using child-focused curriculum (10 Building Blocks for Better Health). School teachers are trained to set up school health clubs where children learn songs, stories, poems and dramas about WASH. Children are mobilized to become change-makers! for WASH at school and in their communities.
* Promote hygiene and sanitation training for villagers using Community health through Hygiene curriculum for adults. A Village Health Team (VHT) is trained using the training-of-trainers approach to reach their neighbors with WASH messages through house-to-house visits and public gatherings.
* Build the capacity of a Water Source and Sanitation Committee (WSSC) to govern and manage WASH facilities and promote behavior change. Sustainability is the primary goal of the which sets and collects water-user fees, oversees use and manages operations and maintenance.
Lifewater has successfully employed this same approach in northern Uganda for more than five years. The implementing partner is trained in all aspects of community development using this approach. The District level government participates in this approach and supports program plans.
Phases:
1. Conduct baseline survey
2. Identify location of water point and school
3. Sensitize/mobilize community/school
4. WASH promotion/training in community/school
5. Drill water point/ train WASH committee
6. Construct school latrine
Community participation at all stages of the project builds ownership and ultimately leads to sustainable water systems. Communities are engaged in multiple stages: baseline surveys, mobilization and WASH promotion, selection of Water Source and Sanitation Committee (gender balanced), WASH training, providing local materials during drilling, fencing water point, forming water-users group, and in the final project evaluation.
The local District-level government is the highest authority participating in the project. The District approves a project work plan with support from the Local Council 1 and 2 levels operating under the District. The Water desk will be notified of the well locations, prior to drilling, and be involved in drilling oversight and water quality testing.
training the Water Source and Sanitation Committee helps build local capacity to sustain the water point. their training focuses on financial roles and responsibilities to manage user-fees, WASH promotion, and environmental stewardship.
Film shows using state of the art video equipment and health related films have helped solidify and validate health messages being taught in communities and schools. Film shows are announced in communities and well attended, by several hundred people. This is a fun and useful strategy to reinforce WASH through entertainment.
We are making the effort to focus on menstrual management in schools for young women, since the topic is not being adequately addressed in the home. In school health clubs, girls learn how to make menstrual pads from local materials and how to manage their personal hygiene needs.
There is no information about other issues currently available for this plan.
Sustainbilit is managed at three levels:
Community -- the Water Source and Sanitation committee is the first line response to sustaining the water system, promoting WASH including construction and maintenance of household latrines, and improvements in WASH behaviors among villagers. Fees collected from water users will pay or support spare parts purchases, and maintenance costs.
Local government - we have trained and equipped local council government offices to perform basic and semi-advanced hand pump repairs. The government is to respond to calls from community WSSCs and provide back-up and support for more technical response.
Divine Waters Uganda - the implementing partner develops and maintains relationships with communities through the WSSC. They can be reached by cell phone should a water system develop issues, thus reducing the breakdown time to less than 24 hours.
These three levels of maintenance and support will provide a level of service from multiple stakeholders, each with a distinct and interlinking role.
$103
Gannt Chart will be used to track project activity progress.
Line item budgets are utilized to track project expenditures.
Monthly reports from partners discuss challenges and lessons-learned.
Well cost $13,000,
Mobilization for community and leaders $200,
WSSC workshop $200,
Train village helath team $250,
Train teachers on WASH $180,
Follow up training for VHT and teachers $200,
Film show $250,
School WASH promotion $300,
School VIP Latrines $9,200,
M&E; $500,
Reporting $500,
Transportation $1,000,
Uganda office $1,500
No additional existing funding details are currently available.
Local materials
Fencing
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Are specific individuals given the responsibility for repairs and costs of maintaining the pump? What is the distance from the school to the source of repair parts for the pump? Are the parts in local hardware stores? Is the school or community required to have on hand at the school the most common parts for repairing the pumps or a fixed fund to buy the parts??
The Water Source and Sanitation Committees are responsible for collecting and keeping regular dues from community members so that when the well breaks down, the funds are available for repair. These committees are also responsible for contacting local repair technicians who have been trained by Lifewater and are part of a Ugandan government-organized society of hand pump repair technicians. The distance varies based on school location and what specific part(s) is needed for the repair. Local technicians are generally able to get the most common parts such as pipes in the community, while more serious repairs tend to require parts from bigger towns such as Lira town.
I hope this gives you a better understanding of how the program works and its sustainability. We are happy to explain further if anything remains unclear.
The tracking of voluntary hygiene practices is done by the PC volunteer on the site in the Guatemalan Peace Corps Healthy project. The observations are done by the Peace Corps volunteer; Peace corps supervisors; and teachers. Having the PCV on site for up to 6 years paid for by the US government is most helpful as you can imagine. The school does not get a certification from the Ministry of education unless they meet these criteria. This is why some schools require 6 years and other just 2 years and some school do not get their certification, but the majority do manage. This is due in great part to the constant presence of the PCV. I understand that you and I do not have this funding base so are not able to be as diligent. Do you have any quantitative information 2 or 3 years after your intervention?
Is the WASH process ongoing through one generation of children grades 1-6?