Community members take the lead to improve sanitation in Rakhine

Rakhine State is one of the poorest and most isolated parts of Myanmar. Less than half (48 per cent) of the people have access to a hygienic toilet – one of the lowest levels in Myanmar; while only 58 per cent of people living in the State have access to safe drinking water. To help change this situation, UNICEF is working with the local government and the Myanmar Red Cross Society to encourage communities to take the lead in building sanitary latrines in three Townships. 

Daw Oo Khaing stands in front of her new latrine in Mrauk-U Township, Rakhine, Myanmar.
©UNICEF Myanmar/2017/Moe Thu

On the outskirts of Mrauk U Township, in Baung Dut village, only two families out of 135 had sanitary latrines in their houses when the initiative began in December 2017. Most people went to the toilet in paddy fields and river streams.

Seventy-year old Daw Oo Khaing Phyu, who lives in the village with five other family members in the same house, had always been uncomfortable with open defecation. Before the UNICEF/ Red Cross initiative came to her village she had tried to build a pit toilet, covered with a plastic sheet. 

“During the rainy season, we used to have a foul smell coming from that pit and it was always flooded,” she recalls. When the neighbours complained the family finally abandoned the makeshift toilet.

But, going to the toilet outside was also problematic. “It wasn’t safe - there are snakes and insects in the bushes,” she explains. “We were also embarrassed.”

So, when the village chairman invited one person from each family to attend a meeting about the UNICEF/ Red Cross initiative, Daw Oo Khaing Phyu was quick to sign-up. 

Through the initiative, participants learnt about the importance of sanitation, especially about how diseases can rapidly spread from human faeces and how the community can prevent this. “I learned that there is only one way we can stop these diseases from spreading, and that is by using a latrine,” said Daw Oo Khaing Phyu. 

The Red Cross and UNICEF also provided three concrete ring moulds for each village. In total, 360 concrete moulds and training were provided enabling the communities to build their own concrete rings for the latrines.  

Armed with new knowledge and determination, Daw Oo Khaing Phyu decided to build a latrine in her home. “We didn’t have enough money to fund the whole construction in one go, so we set aside as much money and materials as we could every month,” she explains. Several months after the Red Cross/ UNICEF initiative began, she completed the latrine in her house. “I feel my family is safer from the diseases that can be spread from human faeces,” she says.

“I would like to thank the Red Cross and UNICEF for giving us the concrete mould. It is very useful. We can use it to make both pit liners and water storage facilities,” she says. “I believe that the villagers will construct more latrines.”

Already, the number of latrines has jumped significantly from only 221 before the initiative began to 2,189 built by communities in three townships across Rakhine State.