ADDRESSING THE INCIDENCE OF OPEN DEFECATION IN MALSHEGU COMMUNITY IN THE SAGNARIGU DISTRICT OF NORTHERN REGION

Abstract

Access to improved toilets and latrines is fundamental to improved healthy living of a society. However, many communities especially those in developing world have not had access to these facilities despite several campaigns and sensitization by government, development partners and civil society organizations people are still living without access to improved toilet facilities and hygiene services. This project adopted Community-Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) tools to improved sanitation and hygiene practises in Malshegu. Pre-intervention survey was carried out to identify the causes and effects of open defecation in the community. With the use of participatory methods, community stakeholders were facilitated to come out with local-based strategies to draw their action plan to address the open defecation menace in the community. The analysis of the pre intervention and post-intervention data show an increase in the availability of household toilet from 10% to 15%, an increased in the availability of hand washing with soap from 5% to 100%, an increase from 10% to 75% about community knowledge on effects of hand washing with soap, an increase of community knowledge on effects of open defecation from 23 % to of 95%, an increase from 32% to 76% of community act of safe water storage at home, an increase from 5% of community practise of hand washing at critical times to as 86% and a decrease of 45% of community practise of open defecation to 90%.The facilitation of CLTS process in the community has resulted in an increase in the construction and usage of toilet facilities in the community. The approaches offered the stakeholders in the community the opportunity to analyses their sanitation situation and undertake local-based interventions to solve the menace without donor support. Mixed method of research was used by the researcher to identify how the few existing toilets was been used and also find out some of the social and cultural factors that promotes open defecation in the community so as to find a diverse strategy to addressing the problem. Non-probability-accidental sampling technology was used to select respondents from Malshegu community in the Sagnarigu District.