Media centre

WES-NTT NEWS - First Edition, August 2008 part 1

WES-NTT NEWS is published by UNICEF Kupang Field Office to share information on Water and Environmental Sanitation (WES)-related activities in East Nusa Tenggara Province.

Table of Contents

- Effort to make Ende free of ‘land mines’
- Strong will for a drop of clean water
- Easy pipe network planning
- Child-friendly toilets in Ende Island
- A glimpse at a unique pipe installation process

Making Ende Island free of ‘land mines’
Teaching villagers not to defecate in the open is quite a challenge, but all the more so when the villagers in question live in seven tiny communities on the remote island of Ende, East Nusa Tenggara.

Ende. It is early morning, and Jalil Roja and his neighbors are busy digging in his backyard, preparing a site for his new toilet. Two concrete columns stand nearby, part of the toilet’s construction. They have only just been finished, while a third column is still drying inside a special mold. “Yesterday, I won the toilet lottery here in Rorurangga village,” says 50-year-old Jalil enthusiastically, “We have already bought the toilet seat and now all we have to do is dig this plot of land to place the columns beneath the toilet seat.”

Together building a family toilet

Toilet Lottery
Jalil’s house is one of the few in his neighborhood which actually already has a toilet, built as part of a government aid program in 1999. But although the toilet took two years to build, it was rarely used and has now fallen into disrepair. “Back then, we still preferred to go to the beach to defecate,” Jalil confided with embarrassment. Now, the old toilet is going to be restored but this time Jalil will not need government aid. Instead, he can use funds collected voluntarily from 17 households in his neighborhood through what is known as the ‘toilet lottery’, a scheme which raises funds for improved sanitation from within the communities that will benefit from it.

Not far from where Jalil and his neighbors are hard at work, some newly-completed toilets can be seen. With walls covered in dried leaves, they look a little makeshift, but they are a product of the villagers’ hard work. “Those are also built by the villagers using fund from the lottery scheme,” said Aisyah, an Ende Health Agency facilitator who has recently finished her university studies and come to work in the village. The leaf-walled toilets have been entirely built by the villagers with no outside donations of construction materials or cash. Aisyah said that this is because the structures themselves are not as important as what building them represents to the villagers. “They don’t want to only make toilets but beyond that. The people here want to stop their unhealthy behavior. That’s why in our program, the Total Community-Based Sanitation (STBM) we never give any material aids to the people. If the people want to change their behavior, they have to do it on their own,” she said.

Aisyah is one of four officials recruited by the Ende Health Agency to work with UNICEF in facilitating better sanitation on Ende Island. Although the community is fairly remote, Aisyah is happy to work there, saying: “I want to dedicate my knowledge to this village, my father’s birthplace.”

One of family toilets in Ende Island

The Island of ‘Land Mines’
At only 62.02 square kilometers, Ende sits to the south of Flores Island and is home to 2000 villagers. In the past, it was sarcastically known as the ‘Island of Land Mines’, because of the human feces scattered along its beautiful beaches. Rorurangga village chief Junaidin was ashamed of his community’s behavior, saying: “Because of the feces, it [was] embarrassing whenever we got guests from the neighboring island of Flores.” Junaidin’s fellow village chiefs across the island shared his embarrassment. They were also worried about the toll unsafe defecation was taking on the community, as diarrhea was rife and many people died from it; most of them children. Before 2006, there were several major diarrhea outbreaks in the island, because the majority of people earn their living from the sea and so were constantly exposed to bacteria on the beach.

Although famous for its beautiful ikat traditional textiles, for a long time Ende has been known more for ‘land mines’, diarrhea and deaths from disease. But with help from the Health Agency and UNICEF, Junaidin believes the community can overcome these problems. “That’s all going to be history for us because Ende Island will soon be free of land mines,” he said firmly.

Brief Facts
- Indonesia is losing Rp 58 trillion per year due to poorly managed sanitation.
- Diarrhea causes 36% of the deaths of under-five year olds in Indonesia.

Mawar Village, Pantar Timur District, Alor, East Nusa Tenggara

Next Page Part 2 >>

Español Français

Search:

Email this article