Ensuring the right to water involves building boreholes but also rehabilitating latrines in schools and hospitals and training in menstrual hygiene
Lack of access to potable water, sanitation justification facilities, and lack of proper hygiene practices. This is South Sudan, and these are the main factors responsible for the increase in outbreaks of diarrhoea and vector-borne diseases across the country. Only 36% of families have access to an improved water source in under 30 minutes without facing any protection concerns, while 77% of people do not have access to a latrine, which is why open defecation is a widespread practice. To mitigate all these factors, together with UNICEF we started a recently completed one-year project in the counties of Torit and Magwi, Eastern Equatoria State, which has led to very significant results for the local population.
During the project, 32 boreholes were rehabilitated between Torit and Magwi: 22 in villages, 9 in schools, and one in a medical facility, for a total of 19,022 people, including adults and children, who can finally access clean water. In addition, 22,286 people in the two counties have access to basic sanitation in their homes once the project has been completed. This helps to combat open defecation and drastically reduce the spread of life-threatening diseases. But it is not enough, it is fundamental to raise awareness among the population. And that is what we have done. We have followed and trained thousands of people on the health risks of this widespread habit and the correct hygiene practices to adopt. In Torit, 1,260 families were followed through these training and monitoring courses, and in Magwi 2,190 were. In addition, we have trained 42 “community hygiene promoters” in each village to raise awareness and spread good hygiene and sanitation practices in the community.
And then the schools were involved: 12, 6 in Torit and 6 in Magwi, because water is a precious commodity and it is important that from an early age, people learn how to manage it, not to waste it, to use it for personal hygiene and to ward off diseases. We have started training courses on proper hygiene practices and to increase sanitation knowledge on the management of the school’s sanitation facilities. A total of 240 students (125 females, 115 males) were trained in so-called “school hygiene clubs”, groups of students whose task is to monitor the proper functioning of the school’s sanitation facilities and make their classmates responsible for their use, and 17 teachers (11 males and 6 females). To promote hygiene, 40 hand-washing facilities (with buckets) and 114 cartons of laundry soap were distributed.
As an integral part of the project, we also supported 1,000 adolescent girls of reproductive age in 11 schools in Torit and Magwi counties through training on menstrual hygiene and best hygiene practices, and the distribution of 1,000 hygiene kits containing sanitary products. 80 boys and 24 teachers also participated in this training, because deconstructing stereotypes and spreading good hygiene practices is a collective practice that needs the participation of the whole community.