Many hands make light work to improve sanitation in Bhutan's gewogs

Women participating in stone mason training as part of the Water for Women project with SNV in Bhutan have gone on to help build important community infrastructure, including toilets. (photo: P.C Sonam Pelzom, PHED Engineer / SNV)

Renowned deafblind 20th century author and activist Helen Keller once said: “Alone we can do little; together we can do so much.”

And so it is proving in Bhutan, where community collaboration is improving sanitation and hygiene, and boosting the health, survival and development of the country's population.

Water for Women partner SNV Netherlands Development Organisation is a development partner in the Bhutanese Government’s Rural Sanitation and Hygiene Programme, which aims to ensure universal access to health and increase Bhutan’s Gross National Happiness.

Programme activities include Community Development for Health (CDH) workshops to encourage villages and districts to prioritise sanitation and hygiene conditions, and they have made a difference.

Four years ago, the government issued certifications to 14 of the country’s 205 village groups, or gewogs, for accomplishing 100 percent improved sanitation.

Tsakaling gewog, in Mongar district, was among them. There, the Public Health Engineering Division (PHED) of Bhutan’s Ministry of Health organised a two-day CDH workshop for the community involving local leaders, health workers, sanitation suppliers, and religious bodies, all with important roles to play in improving sanitation and hygiene.

Tsakaling, as with other gewogs, had to overcome a host of community challenges to achieve the landmark 100 percent improved sanitation status.

With many elderly, single and single-parent households, disputed land, financial problems, and temporary settlements, factors paving the way to success included:

• Subsidised transport of sanitation and hygiene materials
• Formation of sanitation and hygiene groups, including to build toilets
• Mobilising influential community figures to encourage better sanitation and hygiene, including making their own improvements first, such as building toilets to set an example
• Workshops to explain the importance of improved sanitation and hygiene
• Identifying households most in need of support, and
• Deploying local leaders and health workers to monitor process and progress.

As an example of how the community pulled together, working students of two households saved their wages to help their parents build a latrine during their winter vacation.

Water for Women supports SNV’s work under the Government of Bhutan's Rural Sanitation and Hygiene Programme (RSAHP), through the Beyond the Finish Line: Sustainable Sanitation and Hygiene for All project, which aims to provide equitable, universal access to safely managed sanitation and hygiene for more than 275,000 people in rural and urban Bhutan by December 2022.

Water for Women is the Australian government's flagship WASH program and is being delivered as part of Australia's aid program over five years, from 2018 to 2022. Through Water for Women, Australia is investing AUD118.9m to deliver 33 water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) projects and research initiatives, which aim to directly benefit 2.9 million people in 15 countries across South Asia, South East Asia and the Pacific.

This story was originally published as "Alone we can do little, together we can do so much," as part of an SNV in Bhutan SSH4A blog series by local government, health care, and community partners.

A toilet under construction in Tsakaling gewog (photo: Pema Lobzang / SNV)