Sanitation for dignity

Like Agare and Weizero, Zenebech Zewede now also has access to safe water, she says, "It is a big gift to be clean".

Credit: WaterAid / Caroline Irby

The humiliation of living without somewhere safe, clean and private to go to the toilet has long been felt by the women in the crowded settlements of Addis Ababa in Ethiopia.

Agare Zenamariam and her family know this only too well. "We feel very ashamed of the situation," she explains. "We have been using a bucket and plastic bag toilet for many years. We empty the faeces immediately at our backyard bordering the wall of our shelter. It is not suitable. It causes a bad smell and attracts flies." 

Many women in Addis Ababa resort to such drastic measures as there are simply no other options, often waiting to go in the dark to avoid being watched. Only six percent of Ethiopia's population have access to adequate sanitation, and the diseases and problems this can cause can disrupt whole communities and their ways of life.

However, more often than not it is the lack of privacy that upsets people the most, particularly in the densely populated areas of Addis where women such as Weizero Woleteyesus live.

Up until very recently, she and her family had to make use of a dirty communal hole which was close to her house. The hole made it difficult for her husband with asthma to stay in the house because of its strong and offensive smell. It was also a breeding site for flies and other disease-causing parasites which caused much shame for Weizero. "I was very much embarrassed looking at people who could not sit with me in my house because of the bad smell," she says.

WaterAid, together with local partners, has been working to help the communities here build their own latrines and learn about good hygiene. This has helped them to maintain the facilities and reap the maximum health benefits.

Agare and Weizero are more than pleased with the work. "We never thought it was possible to have such a beautiful latrine with water for hand-washing," says Agare. "We can also use the water from the tap for latrine cleaning and for household consumption. Now we feel human." Weizero, too, is happy that she will be "no more embarrassed when people have to gather at my house."

Projects like these are not only helping to bring better health to communities, but also improving their dignity and saving their embarrassment too, as women no longer have to live by open latrines or use insanitary buckets and plastic bags.