Relief for Indonesia Earthquake Survivors

Bill Brower is a Field Program Officer with GlobalGiving who is visiting our partners’ projects throughout South and Southeast Asia. On February 29th he visited the sites of two public toilets being constructed by CHF-International in Padang-Pariaman. His “Postcard” from the visit:

Following the earthquake off the coast of Sumatra last fall, CHF-International did an Emergency Needs Assessment with affected communities. The biggest needs: shelter, followed by improved sanitation (i.e. latrines). CHF set out to provide 5,000 temporary shelters, and is ahead of their schedule in doing so. The toilets proved to be a bit trickier. Their main funder, in line with its emergency-assistance-only remit, could only fund basic pit latrines, but the communities said no one would use them. But the government has a law that NGOs cannot build permanent structures. So they struck a balance between community desires and legal constraints and decided to construct semi-permanent latrines with a fixed water supply.

While construction was just getting underway when I was there, the project seemed to be well conceived. CHF did a more in-depth water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) study and in discussions with the communities decided to do public toilets rather than installations at individual homes, as there is a tradition of public sanitation in this area. The community also decided to put them in central locations where people go anyway (both I visited were at mosques; others will be in markets). Obviously this increases convenience but another benefit is that there are already people in charge of (and with a vested interest in) keeping these places clean. The design includes an area to wash feet as well as hands, which should be particularly appreciated at the mosque where people are required to do wudu before entering. The communities are to form Sanitation Committees in charge of upkeep.

I spoke with Buyung, the foreman of the construction team at one of the sites, who lives in a neighboring village. He said in this community and in his people typically use the river as a toilet, as few have latrines in their home. He thought people would use the latrines because they were closer than the river (which is about a kilometer away).

GlobalGiving funds are often pooled with money from other sources when an organization carries out its projects. The money CHF-International received from you donors is the sole funding for these five public latrines, so you can take special pride in knowing that each one of your donations was a significant part of helping to bring improved sanitation to a community impacted by this powerful earthquake.