Creation of 2 model Ecosan Villages

Orissa is one of the poorest states in India. The state has the lowest social and human development indicators where 47% of the population lives Below Poverty Line (BPL). Majority of the households are dependent on agriculture and farm labour for source of livelihood.

As per the Census 2001, the percentage of rural households not having access to safe sanitation was 92.3%. That is of the total 67, 82,879 (Census 2001) rural households, sanitation facility was not available in 62, 59,607 households. Unsanitary practices, primarily open defecation, bad hygiene practices and the use of contaminated water remain the major causes of child death, disease and malnutrition in India, especially affecting the poor.

In the proposed 2 villages for this project intervention, there is no sanitation coverage.

Goals overview

The goal of the project is to construct 107 Ecosan toilets in 107 households in rural, coastal Orissa with an outreach of 799 men, women and children. Secondly, to ensure that people are motivated towards ECOSAN technology in the wake of decreasing water sources. Thirdly, to improve environmental sanitation, personal hygiene and health standards of the intervened communities.

Current status

The project focuses on 2 villages in 2 different Blocks of one coastal district as the first demonstration on ecosan model in the state of Orissa. As per Census 2001, 92.3% of the households are not covered under the sanitation facility. The Government programme under Total Sanitation Campaign (TSC) facilitates construction of toilets with single soak pit through subsidy coverage for the Below Poverty Line (BPL) families across the state without any contextualisations.

This programme will therefore aim at creating optimal awareness regarding ECOSAN for an 'acceptance' environment from the local self governance members, state government representatives and communities.

The success of this intervention will be a demonstration at the policy level to include ECOSAN as a solution for coastal areas under the Government promoted sanitation programme in the state.

Project plan

In this project, the aim is to provide context specific and demand driven sanitation facility to the communities in the proposed area.

ECOSAN toilets mitigate the twin problem of water scarcity and high water table discouraging soak pit digging. As this would be a model and demonstration intervention, we will have to cover the construction cost of the ECOSAN toilets through donor agency's assistance.

Sanitation is important with perspective to the health standards and the privacy issues of women. Women have to wait till dusk or dawn to defecate as it becomes embarrasing during the day light to relieve themselves in the open fields. This also creates problems like constipation and higher instances of snake bites in women as they search interior places to hide themselves during defecation.

Sanitation is a solution but in the conventional toilets, water becomes a limiting factor in usage of the toilet. Orissa has quite a many example of defunct sanitation systems. Hence, in a state where less than 2% of the rural areas have household piped water supply, it is apt to demonstrate ECOSAN villages.

This year long intervention will focus on motivation and mobilisation of the communities towards ECOSAN toilets. There are cultural barriers as the households will have to physically clean the chamber once it becomes compost. Though it is safe, the communities get offended at the very idea. Their participation will be marked in terms of the sweat equity provided by the respective households.

Secondly, the cost of the ECOSAN model of toilet is 4 times the cost of the Government promoted toilets and thus it becomes a limiting factor with the rural communities.

Therefore, this project will test the social and cultural acceptability of this model for the scale up to 1000 households in the coastal Orissa belt. The operational costs will be met through a community corpous fund to be maintained by the Village Water and Sanitation Committee.

The toilets constructed under the project will be household assets and maintenance will be household responsibility. However, Village Water and Sanitation committee will take active role in the promotion of hygiene habits and meeting any exigency or extension of the project to new households with the VWSC corpus fund.

Expected outcomes

• 12 Village level Orientation meetings
• 107 ECOSAN toilets (1 per household)
• 4 Masons to be trained on ECOSAN toilet model
• 2 Village Water and Sanitation Committees to be formed
• 6 Hygiene Training (3 in each village)

ECOSAN toilets can be build from the hollow bricks with better quality than the kiln brick hence the structure will have longevity. This will ensure that people are happy with their household asset and ensure to take care of the careful cleaning.

Secondly, the Village Water and Sanitation Committee (VWSC) that is constituted will address the community unity and governance issues. The VWSC will have 15 members of which 4 needs to be women, representatives from backward communities and village level representatives of local self governance bodies.

Thirdly, BISWA in collaboration with the donor agency will establish 2 model villages with 100% coverage of ECOSAN toilets hence the families will not have any antagony or disagreement between them. The initial phase is devoted towards creation of community bonding for undertaking sanitation programme.