After having been certified and declared open defecation free (ODF) in 2021, Kaputa district held its celebration on Friday, 21st October 2022. The celebration was also used as an opportunity to recognize community members for their hardworking through the awarding of certificates to al the 212 headpersons and Community Champions who pushed for such an achievement. This makes Kaputa the 5th ODF district (out of 116 districts) in Zambia. ODF is a situation when the entire communities have shifted to using toilets instead of open spaces. a highly undignifying practice. This practice is a common cause of diarrheal diseases as human waste usually returns to communities through many pathways and contaminates streams and wells, which in most cases, are the only source of drinking water. Despite more than a year having past from the time certification was made, the district has managed to sustain the achievement (for now) by having approaches that are encouraging people to climb the sanitation ladder and also be their 'neighbours keepers' in providing peer to peer sanitation compliance monitoring.
To show its commitment to ensuring
that the entire country is by 2030, Government of Zambia rolled out the 2030
ODF Strategy and has courted many stakeholders to realize this vision. One of
the approaches government and development agencies are using to achieve this
the Community-Led Total Sanitation (CLTS), an innovative methodology for
mobilizing communities to raise sanitation and hygiene standards in their
localities. In Zambia, CLTS programming
has been using a 3 Rope Approach (3RA) or 3-pronged approach as a facilitation
management strategy with traditional leaders, civic leaders and technocrats
forming a power influence triangle to scale up access to good sanitation.
The Kaputa achievement wouldn't have
been made possible without the leadership from traditional leaders - Senior
Chief Kaputa and Chief Mukupa Katandula - who provided and continues to do so
through a quarterly monitoring of all villages and weekly radio program dubbed
Community Concerns, the backstopping by penalizing defaulters on the agreed-on
by-laws which pushed for a greater sanitation coverage and positive CLTS
outcomes. Working with District Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Education
(D-WASHE) committees, the project mobilizes communities to act on improving
household sanitation and hygiene through the construction of toilets and installation
of handwashing stations.
The private sector must see this as an
opportunity for introducing and strengthening the sanitation value chain. This
will reduce the possibility of slippage and provide people with wider
sanitation options. ODF achievement involves to a great work of behavioural
change, sustenance of which requires concerted efforts by all stakeholders.
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