Toilets and Water for Dumja

This project is a basic part of total, integral development of Kusheswar Dumja. Besides sanitation also medical help development, education, biogas-usage, electricity and development of business/employment are main goals of the local people of Kusheswar Dumja. This integral development will be performed according to the local demands, in collaboration with local people and NGO’s and by local people (education, construction labour).

Goals overview

Improving the sanitation situation in Kusheswar Dumja, Nepal by providing sanitation education for 2750 persons and constructing 415 toilets.

Current status

“Toilet is everywhere”. That’s the answer you get in Kusheswar Dumja after asking for the toilet.
Beside this statement, the current situation could only be made clear by the presence of (the smell of) faeces all over the fields, paths and hidden places, the high rate of children having diarrea and young age starvation, hygiene problems for women who have to act quickly and are not able to clean enough and hygiene problems because of the absence of water near these ‘toilet places’. The insufficient awareness of hygiene, the lack of enough money and therefore wrong financial priority (no priority for sanitation improvement) causes the present situation.

Project plan

The total project consists of 3 phases, the second phase is this project currently published on AKVO

First phase (is being executed at the moment):
This phase consists of sanitation education and construction of 450 toilets. Investigation about water availability (capacity/quality) and water need.

Second phase (funding needed):
This phase consists of sanitation education and construction of 415 toilets. If necessary further investigation and design of the water installations.

Third phase (currently students are researching the possible solutions to the waterproblem):
Construction of 3 watersystems for 1.225 persons.

Results:
- Availability of 415 toilets of which a large number (at the end of 2009 already 165 toilets) will be connected to a biogas installation (different, parallel project);
- 2750 persons with access to improved sanitation
- Sanitation education for 2750 persons

Ownership: Each family becomes owner of a toilet and has to provide for the building labour.

Maintenance: Besides the sanitation awareness training, the building labour effort of each family is the key to good ownership (cleaning and maintenance) of toilets.

Gender: Privacy for people with a toilet is self-evident. This privacy contributes to gender respect in many ways.

Environment: Environmental effect of a toilet is maximum in combination with a biogas installation. In this way no full slurrytanks will remain. Urine from the toilets will, with or without biogas installation, penetrate into the soil.

Transportation and production of construction materials (cement, iron rod, etc.) for toilets and water installations in Kusheswar Dumja will effect the environmental situation negatively, but in a limited way.

Finance: After construction of toilets a better sanitation level is guaranteed for many years. The effect that people will be aware of this development will cause the people to invest in these facilities once the first toilets are useless and/or damaged. Hygiene education and a better hygiene situation will stimulate people to prioritize financial spending in the future differently.