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| The Kibera slums of Nairobi, Kenya, present challenges to sanitation for sponsored members. |
When Eunice, 10, and her 9-year-old sister Joyce get ready for school in the morning, they must wait their turn to use a community latrine shared by 26 neighbors in their section of Nairobi’s Kibera slum.
The latrine, a rickety and small building made of corrugated aluminum, sits on the edge of a river. It’s situated there so the waste can be carried away by the open sewage channel that snakes through one of the world’s largest slums, where an estimated 1 million people live on a mere 1.5 square miles.
Even though not very sanitary, the latrine is a better option than what is available to some of the girls’ neighbors. Those without latrines—or those fearful of leaving their houses at night—must use plastic bags that they dispose of by throwing them as far as they can from their homes. Those who can afford it, pay 14 cents to use commercial facilities. Water in slums contaminated
Eunice and Joyce, who are sponsored through CFCA, live in a rented house with their parents and three brothers and sisters. An open garbage trench flows less than 10 feet from their front door.
The family earns about $8 a month and must pay a local vendor high fees to purchase water. Eunice carries a container to an outlet and pays much more than the wealthy residents of Nairobi pay for water. But the water in the slums often is contaminated because the pipes that carry it may be broken, allowing sewage and other pollutants to enter.
“[Poor] sanitation is a major cause of diseases in these areas,” Peter Ndungo, Nairobi project coordinator, said. “Diseases such as cholera, typhoid and diarrhea are very common.”
In varying forms, the story of Eunice and Joyce is similar to the stories of thousands of people served by CFCA around the world. People in impoverished communities often struggle to remain healthy without access to clean water and sanitary toilets or latrines. Sanitation impacts poverty
Providing basic sanitation in poor communities could pay enormous dividends, according to the United Nations University. In an October 2008 analysis, the organization said that “simply installing toilets where needed throughout the world and ensuring safe water supplies would do more to end crippling poverty and improve world health than any other possible measure.”
Poor health or chronic illness can force a family into poverty, according to the United Nations University, and 10 percent of the world’s illnesses can be attributed to poor water, hygiene or sanitation.
CFCA projects address sanitation issues in various ways.
In some projects when new homes are built, sanitary latrines may be constructed at the same time. Families often provide the labor. In Timau, Kenya, for example, project coordinator Sister Joanne Gangloff said latrines now are included when CFCA helps families build houses. New latrines built
Some projects or communities receive grant money specifically to build sanitary latrines or toilets, or to dig wells for clean drinking water. In Plan del Naranjo, Honduras, served by the Santa Rosa project, 90 percent of the families had no latrine and were forced to use the bushes. Diarrhea and stomach infections were common. In 2008, CFCA oversaw the building of 56 latrines for the community.
In Hyderabad, India, CFCA offers education and training on the benefits of good hygiene and sanitation. You can help CFCA families obtain sanitary facilities and clean drinking water. Donate to the Healthy Communities Fund. To see a slideshow showing sanitation conditions in CFCA projects and hear a podcast on CFCA's approach to this type of assistance, click here. Glimpses of sanitation initiatives Merida, Mexico–In Chiapas, served by the Merida project, CFCA encourages families to boil or filter contaminated river water before using it. The project offers families containers such as barrels for storage of clean water, and provides cement, cinder blocks and metal sheets to build latrines. The CFCA staff offers sanitation training in an effort to prevent health problems and distributes personal-care items as well as medicine to kill parasites. Guayaquil, Ecuador–In one community served by CFCA, the demand for sanitary toilets has caused the local school bathroom to become the community latrine, exposing children to diseases. To prevent such situations, the Guayaquil project is planning to build more than 55 individual latrines for families and reconstruct latrines older than 12 years. The project also will present workshops on health and hygiene. Timau, Kenya–Project coordinator Sister Joanne Gangloff said most children in the area must be treated for worms from time to time because of unclean water. Local people often don’t boil water, because of the high cost of the firewood or charcoal that fuels their stoves. Sanitation specifications call for latrines to be 30 feet deep, but soil conditions often prevent compliance. This means that latrines are usually shallow, giving access to disease-carrying flies. Because water is difficult to obtain, hand washing is reserved for meal time. Garbage disposal is not provided, so garbage is either burned or dumped into shallow pits, open to rats and flies.
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