Sustainable Sanitation
The importance of safe sanitation
A toilet isn’t just a nice luxury. It’s a necessity for a dignified, healthy, and safe life. Having a toilet and safely managed sanitation services improves community health by eliminating preventable waterborne diseases like cholera and diarrhea.
A good household toilet improves safety, since it can be dangerous to find a place to go outside — especially at night, and especially for women and girls.
THIS IS HOW WE DO IT
We believe the best way for families to gain access to better bathrooms is through sanitation businesses. We don’t give away toilets — that’s not sustainable.
Instead, Water For People has been facilitating Sanitation as a Business in Rwanda.
CREATING DEMAND
- In rural areas, Water For People is sensitizing households to the need for improved sanitation services through household meetings, hygiene and sanitation campaigns, and support of community hygiene and sanitation clubs.
- We encourage families to take affordable sanitation loans to build or renovate their toilets.
CREATING SUPPLY
- We work with finance institutions such as Savings and Credit Cooperatives (SACCOs) and Cash Round Groups to encourage them to add sanitation loans to their portfolios. This enables customers to borrow money for sanitation improvements and pay it back over a period of time at an affordable interest rate.
- We help build the capacity of local entrepreneurs to provide bathroom construction services to families.
Waste Management
E-VAC: Water for People Rwanda explores various waste emptying technologies used in other countries, and has created closed pit emptying equipment called "E-vac." E-vac is becoming widely accepted by Rwandan households to solve their problems emptying their pit latrines, especially in places which are difficult to reach by emptying trucks.
DEFAST: In Gicumbi District, Water For People helped introduce the country’s first Decentralized Fecal Sludge Treatment (DEFAST) Plant, which treats raw sewage and turns it into fertilizer. The new DEFAST plant serves over 15,000 households, a refugee camp, universities, a prison, hospitals, and health centres.
Hygiene Education
While water and sanitation infrastructure are important, people must also understand the importance of using it. Behavior change and education about safe hygiene practices are included in all our interventions. At the community level, our hygiene work includes social art performances that motivate hygiene behavior change. In schools, we create forums for discussions among students and educators through School Hygiene Clubs. We make sure schools have hand-washing stations and toilets, and we support menstrual hygiene management, so girls have the education and resources they need to stay in school when they get their periods.