Monday, 23 March 2015

KALI IMPROVES SANITATION IN NTARA SUB COUNTY-KAMWENGE DISTRICT.

Compiled by;

Geoffrey
WASH Prog.Officer - KALI



KALI in partnership with SNV and Kamwenge District Local government is implementing Sustainable Sanitation and Hygiene for all Project funded by DFID in Ntara S/C. Phase I started in July 2014, Buy-in meeting and Baseline study for the Sub County was carried out and revealed that the sub county is made up of 06 Parishes, 47 Villages and located approximately 30km south of Kamwenge district headquarters. The Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Environmental and Legal (PESTEL) setting of Ntara S/C was discussed. The baseline survey showed that, 5,135 HH were reached, 2227 HH of them (43%) did not have acceptable latrines, Drying racks were at 52%, Rubbish pits were at 27%, Bath shelters at 35% and Open Defecation was observed in all the six parishes of Ntara Sub County.

Phase II started with Parish mobilization meetings (six) each targeting 20 participants and these included among others; Parish councillors, Parish chiefs, Religious leaders, VHTs and C/persons LC.I& II. The parish meetings aimed at sharing SSH4A-Project result areas, coming up with work plans for CLTS sessions for each Village, roles and responsibilities for the key stakeholders in Ntara Sub County. It also aimed at orienting parish stakeholders on the CLTS approach that was going to be used during the implementation. Members were triggered to give them strength to mobilize their communities on the sanitation and hygiene improvement targeting ODF Villages.

Table 1. Showing attendance at Parish stakeholders meeting.
S/no
Parish
No. of Villages
attendance
1
Kitonzi
5
21
2
Kabale
8
34
3
Kicwamba
12
32
4
Ntara
8
28
5
Rugarama
6
18
6
Nyakacwamba
8
30

The target number of participants was 20 per parish. We expected one VHT to represent each village but most active VHTs from every Village turned up hence a higher turn up as observed in the table above. This was on the other hand advantageous in increasing project knowledge to most VHTs. Additionally, During the Buy-in-meeting at Sub County, a PESTEL analysis was carried out and it revealed that Ntara S/C is challenged with cases of vulnerable groups especially orphan and Widow headed families who are economically disadvantaged. More so, the growing trading centres with great numbers of un employed youth involved in playing cards for money has led to theft in the different communities of Ntara Sub County. These scenarios have led to low trend of latrine construction due to economic vulnerability and low attitude to hand washing facilities for fear of steeling them as it has been witnessed. Much as the community through the church is trying to mobilize construction of latrines for the vulnerable groups, this is not working out well in most villages.

CLTS Triggering/Sanitation Demand Creation:
CLTS triggering in Ntara S/C is building on a tough ground of poor sanitation and Hygiene which was at 56% lower than in all the 8 sub counties where SSH4A project will run in the period of 4 years. This is the reason why the project started in this sub county. The facilitators engaged in Ntara Sub County include; KALI staff as team leader, KDC Staff, Health Assistant of Nyabani sub county, and one VHT Coordinator Kichwamba Parish. The team was part of the ten (10) CLTS promoters from Kamwenge district trained in CLTS demand creation in Kasese by SNV. This team is supported by KALI monitors, district councillors, LC. III V/C Chair person, S/C CDO, VHTs and LC.I leaders of each village.
All the Six Parishes with 47 Villages in Ntara Sub County were triggered and the triggering sessions ended at the end of October 2014. Three primary schools were also triggered and followed up. PHOTO BELOW, KALI staff with a WOMAN in Kyakasasira Village on her newly constructed latrine.


Follow ups: Each of these 47 Villages has been followed up. Active L.C C/persons, VHTs & Natural leaders who emerged during triggering have participated in the house-to-house follow ups. The sub county Chief, district Councillors, LC.III,CDO, Health inspector Kitagwenda County and parish Councillors of Ntara have been of great help in mobilization and supporting our community meetings. In every village triggered, the sub county and district was represented by the Vice chairperson LC III attended most of the CLTS sessions as other S/C Councillors attended sessions in other villages. The district councillors both male and female divided themselves so that each triggering session was attended. At district level, the District CDO and Health educator have been given progress reports- in addition to sharing these reports with DHT and CAOs Office,Speaker and other district Officilas.

Table 2. Status on latrine construction:
Name of LCB
 KALI
Analysis
Sub County
 NTARA
District
 KAMWENGE

No. of HH
 At baseline
No of HH As at 15th  Feb.2015
% Coverage
Remarks
No latrine
390
         00
00
The project has been able to fight this level to up to Zero %
Latrine without shelter
517 
64 
1
% of latrines at slab level across 47 Villages, sharing with neighbours & No open defecation around these HH.
Latrine with temporary shelters
1320 
401
8
Total % Coverage for those in the final stages of latrine construction
Acceptable latrine
2908 
4670 
91
Total sub county % coverage for latrines. It includes the Newly constructed, construction from slabs, Improved & Repaired shelters
Total # HH at Survey
5135 
5135




1.    Latrines: At baseline, 2227 Households (43 %) did not have acceptable latrines and these included HH with; No latrines,                                           Latrines with no shelters, Temporary shelters. This therefore means a percentage reduction for those who did not latrines by 11%. Out of the 5135 /57% HH in Ntara, 2908 had acceptable latrines. But with this project intervention, Total of 1108 new latrines were constructed during project period thus, rising the percentage coverage for acceptable latrines from 57 % to 91%. 

 Sustainability:
      In order to sustain the above results, a stakeholders meeting was conducted with key players in Ntara sub county. among them were, all sub county technical staff, sub county executive, OC- Police and other security officers. the meeting resolved to mainstream sanitation and hygiene in all sub county programs example;NAADS, CDD,Community policing prog. by the OC-Police in addition to routine supervision by the Sub county health assistant through the Village health team.