•In November last year, 15 governors with high open defaecation rates pledged to set aside funds to end OD, improve sanitation..
Image: MAGDALENE SAYA
The rugged terrain in West Pokot county is a challenge in the fight to end open defecation.
The rocky and hilly terrain makes it difficult to drill holes for latrines and safer disposal of human waste.
West Pokot is among 15 counties that have been mapped by the government as having high levels of open defecation.
Data from Unicef shows 262,145 people in the county are practicing OD with 42.7 per cent of households using the bush.
Other counties with higher OD levels include Isiolo, Homa Bay, Tana River, Kajiado, Marsabit, Samburu, Baringo, Kilifi, Kwale, Garissa, Narok, Mandera, Wajir and Turkana.
“There are cultural beliefs and we also have areas where people don’t have stable families. They move with their animals so you find that they cannot have a pit, they don't see it as important for them,” Health CEC Christine Apokoreng said.
“People have chunks of land so they easily hide behind the bushes and defaecate," she said.
The governor supported one location with iron sheets then they just to dig and make temporary shelter so that they can use the area,” she added.
So far, only three counties have been certified as open defecation-free: Kitui, Siaya and Busia.
Low latrine coverage and widespread open defecation has been responsible for persistent cholera outbreaks in Garissa and Wajir counties.
Cholera is an infectious disease that causes severe watery diarrhoea, which can lead to dehydration and even death if untreated.
Poor sanitation and contaminated water are also linked to transmission of diseases such as cholera, dysentery, hepatitis A and typhoid.
“People don’t have that know how. There is need for a lot of education so they see the importance. Most of these diseases come because of unhygienic environments.”
Image: MAGDALENE SAYA
In November last year, governors in the 15 counties with high open defecation rates committed to set aside budgets towards sanitation and hygiene.
The 15 counties, mostly from Northern region and Nyanza, were identified as having the highest number of households that lack toilets and still practise defecation in the open or in the bushes.
In renewed government effort to ensure the burden of OD in these counties is eased, the Health Ministry and partners formed the Kenya Sanitation Alliance. It is a sanitation alliance focusing on those counties.
“The ministry is using community-led total sanitation which is an approach of triggering communities to act and construct toilets for themselves. More important, to use the toilets they have constructed,” WASH officer at Unicef Kenya Jimmy Kariuki said.
The government aims to end open defaecation by 2025 with activities to educate communities about the importance of good hygiene of open waste disposal.
Busia was the first county to be declared open defaecation- free by the Health Ministry in 2016, due to a project called Financial Inclusion in Improved sanitation in Kenya implemented by African Medical and Research Foundation.
(Edited by V. Graham)