Nancy: "Using the toilets keeps us healthy and our community clean”
By Delina Garsón “Our school now has four bathrooms, two for the chachas (that’s boys in Quechua) and two for the warmis (girls). When they finished building them they explained to us that these are ecological toilets that don’t need any water to work. After we use them, we just spread some ash on top. We don’t have any proper toilet paper, so we sometimes use other kinds of paper or even rocks to wipe with. After that we have to wash our hands …, although we don’t always do that.” Nancy lives in the community of Catavicollo, in the Municipality of Challapata on the Bolivian Altiplano. This is located in the Department of Oruro at 3,695 metres above sea level. Twenty two families live here, with a total of 78 people, both children and adults. Many of its inhabitants have migrated to other places in search of better jobs and living conditions. “The teacher told us that after using the toilet we have to put ashes on top, like it says here on the wall,” comments Nancy. “The houses still don’t have bathrooms. Sometimes we come over to the school to use them, but if I’m out in the field somewhere - well, I just look for someplace…”.
“To use the eco-shower we take turns according to our classes. I’m in seventh grade, so I get to use it one Thursday per month. The water comes out hot and it’s really nice having a shower. I used to go to the river with my mum, but the water there is so cold and it is impossible to wash your whole body at the same time,” Nancy tells us smiling. The school Principal in Catavicollo, Germán Cardozo, comments that building eco-toilets was the best option to ensure that the children had access to sanitation services. “The flow of water to the community is good enough for cooking and drinking, but it would not have been able to supply the bathrooms. This is a very dry area and in some months the water level drops off noticeably,” says Germán. Ecological toilets consist of four contiguous pits, two for boys and two for girls. Only one per gender is used, with the second sealed off. Depending on the number of boys and girls in the school, one pit can last for one to two years; once it is full, it is sealed off and the second pit is put to use. When the second one is full, the first is emptied and the faecal matter is buried. The Catavicollo community has organised a Potable Water and Sanitation Committee, called CAPYS in Spanish, which delegates temporary responsibilities amongst its members for the cleaning and maintenance of its water system, toilets and the ecological shower. UNICEF, through the NGO SEMDE - Servicios Múltiples para el Desarrollo – SEMDE (Multiple Services for Development) and in conjunction with the Municipality of Challapata and local community members, installed a 12-tap public water system in 2005, built the ecological toilets for the school in 2006, and this year delivered a pair of showers that heat water using solar energy.
Water and sanitation in Bolivia Bolivia is reported as being the second poorest country in Latin America with 34.5 per cent of the nation's population living in extreme poverty (less than USD 1 per person per day) and 67 per cent of the population living in poverty of some degree (less than USD 2 per person per day). Especially in disadvantaged urban and rural areas of the country, poverty is severe and access to public services limited. In average, infant mortality is reported at 54 deaths in 1,000 live births, under-five child mortality lies at 75 in 1,000 live births and life expectancy is 66 years. The Bolivian Government’s National Plan for Basic Sanitation for 2007 quotes a 75% coverage of access to drinking water and 48% for sanitation. The implementation priorities for increasing the coverage of these two components are divided into population categories: urban, small and intermediate cities, peri urban, rural concentrations, and indigenous and native territories. According to the Fifth Report Report of the MDGs, drawn up by the Social and Economic Policy Unit (UDAPE), although the past two decades have shown positive progress in the coverage of basic water and sanitation services at the national level, there are still significant challenges for this sector. One of the principal challenges is to reduce the considerable gap in access to services in rural areas. Owing to the dispersal of the population in many rural areas, the elevated cost of the provision of services acts as a disincentive for private investment and suggests studying the possibility to integrate markets by means of creating “mancomunidades” and metropolizing the municipalities. Alternatively, problems regarding sustainability persist, not only in rural areas but also urban ones, where a worrying decline in water coverage can be observed. |
