From Rajeev R. Rana, United Nations Children's Fund, Supaul, Bihar
Posted 19 August 2009
Sanitation during emergencies is an important area of concern. Emergencies paradoxically present an opportunity to promote sanitation, with a fresh approach. When floods destroy sanitation facilities, it sets back efforts to promote sanitation among communities. To facilitate this, it is critical to involve people in sanitation planning during emergencies so the new strategy fits local needs.
Equally important is women’s participation, to ensure that the new strategy addresses their needs for sanitation during and after the emergency. There are many reasons why people make toilets, and these should inform any new approach to sanitation. These are:
- Privacy: A toilet can be simple but the need for privacy makes it important for a toilet to have a good shelter, ideally made from local material. This is especially important during an emergency when buildings may have been destroyed
- Safety: A toilet should be safe and well-built, located in a safe place
- Comfort: People will prefer a comfortable toilet large enough to stand up and move around in
- Cleanliness: People will avoid a toilet if it is dirty and smelly
- Respect: A well-kept toilet raises the status of its owner and this is often why people spend money to build one
- Gender: Women have an especially hard time to meet their sanitation needs during emergencies. However, they may lack money, resources, power, or confidence to meet their needs and leaving them out of the planning process puts them at greater risk
Against this background, I would like members of the Water and Disaster Management Communities to provide inputs on the following:
- What are the new examples/approaches to sanitation that can improve access and usage during normal times and emergencies?
- How can we raise awareness among those who have recently been through an emergency about sanitation and hygiene?
- What are specific roles of the community, schools, government officials and implementation agencies?
Your responses will help our programmes to provide better community sanitation both during emergencies and at normal times.
Please see attachment below for the responses.