Villagers in remote area need more than money

Fifty-three-year-old Gao Zhiping, a farmer living in Gaojiagou village of North China's Sanxi province, is accustomed to the dirty environment of his toilet. And like for most people in his village, any talk of toilets is like talking about sex - it's private and it's rude - because for villagers like him, going to the toilet is not nearly as important as the happiness of a good corn harvest or the benefits from government subsidies.

A national campaign to improve toilet and sanitation, by the Chinese government on the basis of the United Nations Children's Fund's (UNICEF) pilot program in the 1990s, is now creating a shift in that mentality.

"When summer comes, the toilet stinks, driving off passers-by," Gao Zhiping says, pointing to the shabby open toilet constructed by his grandfather in the early 1950s. "Flies are everywhere. Over the roof, in the kitchen, you name it."

Some villagers don't even have that. Instead, they share an open toilet - a two-meter deep pit - notorious for being the cause of death of many children, after they slipped into the pit and drowned in excrement.

Even more alarming is the health threat such toilets pose. When tap water was not available, Gao Zhiping went all the way to Sishui River at the foot of the mountains to fetch water, but, even that water was polluted with the leakage from open toilets. "We were worried, but no one knew how to deal with the situation," he says.

In adjacent Dongchangyi village, "diarrhea was a commonly reported disease," says villager Wang Xianzhong. A reason for that was children's easy access to dung. "They like to play games with it," he said.

Not funny

But, game-playing is no funny thing.

UNICEF statistics show that 190 million Chinese children suffer from roundworm and a further 70 million are tormented by whipworm infections. "This bowel infection may result in retarded growth and malnutrition," says Lei Jun, an official from UNICEF.

Gao Shenghua, director of the Shanxi Provincial Committee of Patriotic Health Campaign, agrees that negligence of toilets is not only an issue of personal hygiene, but also a huge challenge to public health.

In view of the country's worrying sanitation situation, UNICEF kicked off a pilot program aimed at rural areas of northwest China in 1996, with a focus on building new double-urn latrines, where the first urn, filled with water, is used for storing dung. Within three months, nearly all bacteria in the dung are killed in an anaerobic environment, and the dung will automatically be transferred to the second urn through a tunnel linking the two, as a result of the difference of pressures. The dung in the second urn continues to ferment, before eventually being disposed off.

The fermented dung in the second urn can be used as high-quality organic fertilizer.

UNICEF's pilot program also emphasizes health awareness.

"Now, everyone in my village has accepted the idea that washing hands with soap is an effective means to prevent communicable diseases," says Wang Xianzhong, a beneficiary of the pilot program, who is pleased that he is no longer bothered by flies from his toilet.

UNICEF's practice was gradually absorbed into the policy-making process at the top level in China. Starting 2007, the central government decided to improve sanitation, especially in rural areas. They sought to renovate the old-typed toilets into five new types: double-urn, three-chamber, bio-gas, urine-diversion and water flushed toilets.

Government's efforts

The central government expenditure on renovating toilets has risen from 107 million yuan in 2004 to 300 million yuan in 2008 and its target is to raise the penetration of sanitary toilets to 65 percent by 2015. Right now, coverage of sanitary toilets in the rural areas of Shanxi is 16 percent.

"To keep a clean environment is an important element of building a socialist new countryside," says Gao Shenghua. However, officials and villagers have yet to counter a series of challenges - the main issue being funding.

Without sufficient funding, Gao Zhiping says he cannot renovate his toilet. For his family of four, with an income of less than 3,000 yuan, the expense of building a new toilet is too much.

On average, building a toilet costs nearly 1,000 yuan, but the central government allots only 350 yuan for each toilet. While provincial and local governments are obliged to contribute their portion, most local governments are short of revenue. Besides, for many officials a clean toilet is much less important than introducing investment in their respective provinces.

The Patriotic Health Campaign Committee, which is responsible for overseeing sanitation, is in an embarrassing situation.

In the mid-1950s, Chairman Mao Zedong initiated a movement to "fight against bacteria". The Patriotic Health Campaign Committee was thus founded. However, the committee's function has been sidelined over the past decades. According to Gao Shenghua, the committee does not even have specially assigned personnel at many lower-levels. But, he is determined to push ahead.

"I am happy that the party General Secretary Hu Jintao once again emphasized the importance of the Patriotic Health Campaign, in his speech at the 17th National Congress of the Communist Party of China," she said. "A person can hardly be deemed healthy even if a single cell is ill, and the socialist new countryside won't be realized without clean toilets in the backyard."

Xinhua

(China Daily 05/04/2009 page5)