The toilet is in the final stages of completion! Francis emailed me and said that they plan on opening the toilet sometime in November. The President wanted to attend the grand opening so they pushed back the date. Here are some pictures of the first latrine that was built by a NGO which as you can see is pretty much non existent. The second picture is the pit latrine that was built 2 years ago by another NGO. You can see by the pictures that it has not been taken care of which I believe falls back on the NGO that built the latrine. When this latrine was built it had a septic tank built to contain the waste and then the village was to have it emptied using the money they collected from the users. Obviously this did not work and the villagers rerouted the waste to dump into the river behind the toilet. This causes a problem because when it rains the river rises therefore the waste is brought back into the village.
Unfortunately this is a common occurrence not only in Africa but in other parts of the world. Organizations will go into communities build wells, latrines and turn it over to the community without ongoing education. When I was met with people from Public Works they told me that in Monrovia there are between 500-700 hand-pumps, however 60% of them do not work properly. This is due to the community not properly maintaining the pump which is due to two things: not being properly educated on how to fix and maintain the pump and second if the pump breaks not having access to getting the parts needed to fix the pump. The more I think about it the more I realize that NGO’s have good intentions however it is more of a band aid effect. They are not going to the root of the problem which is EDUCATION!
When organizations whether it be NGO’s, private or government organizations invest they want to show where the money is going. Wells and latrines are physically visible therefore donators are able to instantly see where their money is going towards. Education in a country that has been devastated by war takes years and is not quickly seen therefore is often not a priority. This my friends is the most important piece of the puzzle because without education the cycle will never end. Organizations will continue to build wells and latrines which will be destroyed within a couple of years, children will continue to die from preventable diseases and poverty will continue to grow unless education becomes the primary focus!
With this said some of you maybe thinking, what is going to be different with this toilet? Here are some of the reasons:
1. The DUCOR-WACSN Eco-Sanitation toilet is an actual toilet; it is not a pit latrine that the community previously used.
2. The community helped build the toilet so they have invested time into building something that will benefit them, their children and the community as a whole.
3. The biggest difference is there is ongoing education on how to use the commode, why it is important to use the toilet versus defecating in a plastic bag, in the surrounding areas, etc. The education is being done by people in the community who have been trained by DUCOR-WACSN.
4. There will be monitoring of the toilet by DUCOR-WACSN; the toilet will not be turned over to the community until there is a real understanding of how to run the toilet and until it is sustainable which may take years.
DUCOR and WACSN will continue to build these toilets in markets with their own money until the government and other organizations jump on board. This is going to be a long haul but it is well worth the money and hard work.
