Mercy describes the latest challenge taken on by Fantsuam Foundation
Introducing communal stategies close to home
Fantsuam Foundation is the North West Zonal HQ for the Water and Sanitation Network of Nigeria, NEWSAN. Supported by UNICEF we have been involved in promoting communal hygiene in the states of Bauchi and Jigawa so we decided it was time we introduced some of the communal hygiene strategies to our host community, BayanLoco in Kafanchan.
What do we do about open sewers and defecation?
BayanLoco is an unplanned peri-urban slum of about 50,000 people with poor roads and no planned drainage. How do we create a semblance of safe waste disposal, sanitation and water provision there? At the moment we have open sewers, lack of waste disposal sites, littering and open defecation. The resources may be limited so most certainly there is a need for committed involvement by the leadership and every member of the community if this challenge is to be met.
Dialogue with stakeholders
We are organizing dialogues with key stakeholders: community and women leaders, youths and adolescent girls so that they all feed into the final design of the intervention that will ensure that major common needs can be addressed. We will give due attention to each of these stakeholder groups in whatever contexts suits them best: churches, clan-based meetings, football teams or youth groups. Our priority will be to raise awareness within the community, agree on alternative, viable toilet systems and support landlords to implement these within their compounds - and maybe to get Government support with relevant legislation
The importance of toilet design
Fantsuam Foundation’s experience in building a public toilet at the new Nakowa Market gives us valuable experience. Dadamac will support Fantsuam Foundation by discussing with ‘Engineers Without Borders’ the design challenges for the drainage, the waste disposal sites and safe and hygienic disposal and processing of human waste.
It will be necessary to encourage the communities to adopt a toilet system that uses very little or no water as a partial solution to the challenge of inadequate water supply.