Bulgarian project “ Safe Sanitation, Health and Dignity“ officially started
A field trip along start up meetings was organized in Bulgaria for the project “Sustainable Sanitation, Health and Dignity“, a project financially supported by Fondation Ensemble and ORT, a worldwide educational organisation
21.04.2008 |Bistra Mihaylova
A field trip with start-up meetings was organized in Bulgaria for the project “Sustainable Sanitation, Health and Dignity“. The visit was prepared by the local partner in Bulgaria- Diana Iskreva (Earth Forever) together with WECF project leader Anne Barre and WECF project coordinator for Bulgaria Bistra Mihaylova.
A visit to the project regions was carried out over 4 days, in the cities of Stara Zagora, Pleven and Pravets, where memorandums of understanding were signed between our local partner, Earth Forever and each municipality. The agreements had been discussed in details with the local authorities in the preceding months whereby all have shown a great motivation in participating in the project. The local authorities are willing to cooperate through in kind contribution and also financially when possible.
Press conferences were held in the 3 towns, with interviews shown on local and national television, broadcasted on radio stations, and published through several article in the local newspapers as well. A visit to different villages confirmed the demand of the local population for improving the sanitation situation in public buildings and private households. We visited 8 villages and gathered information about their present needs related to hygiene and sanitation.
Most schools in the rural areas of these regions need improvement of their sanitation facilities. The children often have to use outdoor pit latrines with barely any facilities for hand washing. When the school is equipped with indoor flush toilets, the wastewater is evacuated in a soakaway pit constructed on the school ground, without any treatment. These soakaway pits overflow regularly, creating problematic conditions. In the village of Vidrare, there is a handicapped centre for children, which does not have proper wastewater treatment and the waste water causes problems to the local population polluting the river.
The next steps will be to conduct a background survey on the health and sanitary conditions in the villages, to identify households for construction of household toilets, and to start organizing seminars and trainings. An educational programme with water safety plans and water monitoring will be established for the schools.
Activities have already started and will be carried out until October 2010.
Look for our next news and reports on the project that will be published regularly on this WECF webpage.
