New Toilet New Life

“In the past, I didn’t have a toilet, so every morning after I woke up and I wanted to go to the bathroom, I had to walk to the field about 200 meters away from my house. Many people in this village also used their field as space for defecation. Sometimes, during the night when I got stomachaches, I had to wake my parents up to took me to the field, so it was hard for both me and my parents”

Tub’s mother also shared her experiences about her life without a toilet in the past “every day we would waste our time to go to the field to excrete. It stole our time for livelihood. Sometimes when my daughter was doing homework, she had to stop it to go.”

Tub also noted the health risks that this situation posed.

“I often got ill and got diarrhea so many times, and I needed to stay away from school and my friends. The nurse in the health center said it’s because of the food contamination and lack of a toilet. 3 years ago, my parents decided to build a toilet… It was good having a toilet near the house but we still could not access clean water, and we had to walk to take water from the river. If we had enough water in the toilet we could flush, but if not we had to go back to the field.”

After the Gravity-Fed water system was installed in the village last September, every family got easy access to clean water.

“Finally we can have clean water that is easier to use… I’m very happy, I don’t have to go to the field as I did in the past, and no more need to work hard to fetch water from the river. Now I have more time to study and do homework. Moreover, my friends and I won’t get diarrhea again”.