Start Date: 2013-10-01

Completion Date: 2014-01-17

Technology Used:

PWW employs proven, effective and affordable technology to provide a complete WASH package to Hondurans. The point of use technology used is simple for recipients to use and necessitates minimal maintenance inputs. According to the Center for Affordable Water and Sanitation Technology (CAWST), biosand filters are proven to remove up to 98.5 percent of bacteria, 99.9 percent of protozoa, 95 percent of turbidity and 90-95 percent of iron.

The added benefit of latrine access reduces the environmental contamination of open defecation and is necessary to stop the transmission of pathogens from feces to humans. In these communities, pour- flush latrines are being implemented. Sanitation, coupled with targeted, effective hygiene education, beneficiaries have the tools, understanding and information they need to reduce the burden of waterborne disease.

PWW’s approach focuses on community engagement and participation, and extensive educational initiatives—two facets we believe significantly strengthen the success of our programming. Community members play an active role in the implementation of PWW projects:
They work with PWW staff on filter installation and latrine construction, ensuring that they have a complete understanding of how each unit works and how to maintain them to their maximum capacity.

Phases:

This project will be completed in one phase.

Community Organization:

In addition to the community involvement, volunteers are selected in each community to receive training to serve as Community Agents, who provide technical support for households. The main objective of this training is to build the local capacity of community members and to establish institutional knowledge to support total behavior change in the use of the filter, latrine, and hygiene practices. After the training, community agents help to support household -level hygiene and sanitation improvement activities.

Post installation activities include PWW staff returning to the community multiple times to work with the community agents, monitor the effectiveness of the training, access the change in hygiene behaviors of the beneficiaries and to take corrective actions if necessary.

Beneficiaries also participate in the building of their latrine through providing some materials, digging the pit and participating in the installation of the latrine. They also contribute a small sum towards their filter.

Government Interaction:

Ancillary activities:

Other Issues:

As the second poorest country in Central America, per capita GDP in Honduras is $4,200 USD—ranking 156th in the world—and an estimated 65 percent of the 8.1 million Hondurans live below the poverty line (CIA 2011). In Trojes, only about 1 in 2 individuals have access to clean water and safe sanitation. Trojes is one of Honduras’ poorest regions, accessible only by treacherous, unpaved roads. Known as the “recovered zone” of the district of El Paraíso, this area was once part of the Republic of Nicaragua. The influx of Contra rebels into this area in the 1980s caused many people to flee the region, and it has been left with minimal support from either central or regional governments.
Specifically, PWW seeks to address this lack of clean water, safe sanitation and hygiene knowledge in Trojes that poses a significant health burden to an underserved region. In Trojes, homes are clustered along a few dirt roads or scattered across the landscape and reachable only by footpaths. The mountainous roads are steep and rutted, causing distinct challenges to residents in securing goods or services. Many families have built a rudimentary system of running water, consisting of a rubber hose that delivers water by gravity from a small pond in a spring or a creek at a higher elevation. At the house, the hose usually empties into a barrel or bucket in the yard. Ninety-eight percent of the families do not have a protected water source. Livestock, human waste, other houses and runoff all contribute to the degradation of the water quality in the community. Open defecation is widely practiced.
Access to improved water, sanitation and hygiene practices save lives and have significant implications for the reduction of poverty. Such access affects primary school enrollment by reducing illnesses that cause children to miss school, improves adult labor productivity, increases economic productivity, and reduces environmental hazards related to polluted water (World Bank Group 2008), as PWW project beneficiaries, local schoolteachers, and health workers have all attested. In developing countries, the most affected populations are those living in extreme poverty, especially those located in rural regions such as Trojes.