Sanitation and Hygiene Program in the Bateyes Community

Like these organizations, this project recognizes the socio-economic challenges faced by the Bateyes Communities and the link between the health predicaments and lack of clean drinking water. Within the paper therefore, a background of the Bateyes communities highlighting the living conditions is given. Further, the paper proposes Household water treatment through Filtration using Ceramic filters as a solution to the chronic shortage of clean drinking water that affects nearly 83% of the population. Included also are the benefits of the filtration program, anticipated challenges, potential collaborators and funders and the process of implementing the program. Introduction WASH is an acronym that stands for water, sanitation and hygiene. With a population of approximately 200,000, there is a widespread lack of basic provisions key being water, health and education.

3 The situation is further made worse by the inherent chronic malnutrition as a result of the high poverty rates within the community. The Bateyes are there living under a deadly combination of poverty, lack of basic provisions such as water and health and the inadequacy of food, a recipe for all disastrous life phenomena including high mortality rates, human rights violation and overall seclusion from global integration. 4 To paint the image of the precarious conditions under which the Dominican Bateyes live, the following brief statistics will prove valuable. Approximately 20% of children below 15 years in the community do not live with their parents. This builds further to the need for a solution to the address the water purification challenge in the Bateyes community.

2 Health Consequences of lack of Clean Drinking Water and Poor Sanitation and Hygiene As indicated earlier, both the millennium development goals (MDGs) and the sustainable development goals (SDGs) highlight the significance of a universal and equitable access to water, sanitation and hygiene. 5 Under the two set of goals, WASH is a significant aspect of public health which, if not well considered has serious health ramifications. Lack of clean and safe drinking water in particular gives rise to a number of waterborne diseases and other health complication. Among these diseases are diarrhea, bilharzia, amoeba, typhoid, hepatitis A amongst others. The psychological trauma that comes with the loss of loved ones under such circumstances and the thought of forever being condemned to such conditions causes what is known as disability adjusted life cycle.

8 This comes from the combined life expectancy and adjusted quality of life following the burdensome disease phase for the Bateyes communities. 5 It is evident given the poor health conditions following the limited access to water, hygiene and sanitation that the high mortality rates imply lowered life expectancy. Equally, the impoverishment of the communities implies low quality of life. It therefore follows that the lack of a proper WASH program contributes to disability adjusted life years. As highlighted earlier in this paper, illiteracy is quite high in the Bateyes community. As such, it would be counterproductive to enroll the ceramic filtration program without proper educative undertaking that would serve as a sanitization tool to help the locals appreciate the program. 9 The initial stage of the household water filtration program would therefore start with a Participatory WASH-based health and hygiene education program.

In this program, the locals will be taken through the effects of consuming contaminated water. To achieve optimal outcome for this activity, emotional appeal will be made in which attempts to associate the current disease prevalence and deaths with the state of water being consumed will prove valuable. 10 Operations of a Ceramic Filtration Pot The ceramics are made from clay as the primary raw material. The most recent design is the potters for peace design currently being used in over 20 countries for the same purpose of water purification. 9 The ceramic filtration system involves the ceramic pot, which is flowerpot shaped and a storage receptacle. Once the pot is made, it is impregnated with silver colloidal silver for two key reasons. The colloidal silver ensures the complete extraction of bacteria from the final treated water and also prevents the growth of bacteria in the ceramic pots.

As indicated earlier, the ceramic filters impregnated with colloidal silver serve to remove bacteria, viruses and protozoa. These are the main disease causing organisms and microorganisms in contaminated water. It is however worth noting that for the ceramic filters to remove the smaller viruses, the quality of the ceramic filters must be taken into account. Having removed the disease causing organism from the water, it is expected that the incidences of the relevant diseases will subside. Evidence from developing countries that have adopted the Potters for peace ceramic filters shows that since the adoption of the filtration techniques, there has been a 60-70% reduction in diarrhea incidences. However, when it comes to the household water filtration program in the Dominican Bateyes, the key institutions who form the most viable collaborators and funders include the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), World Health Organization (WHO) and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

CDC has several programs touching on the provision of clean water for communities including the CDC Health Water and CDC Global Water, Sanitation and Hygiene program. The World Health Organization also has several programs related to the household water filtration, key among them being the WHO household water treatment and safe storage and the WHO water sanitation and health. USAID on the other hand contributes to the MDG7 and SDG6. 1 through the USAID Environmental Health Program. This therefore informs the decision to pick water filtration as a WASH program to provide clean drinking water for the Dominican Bateyes communities. Challenges and Limitations Introducing programs that require community involvement to regions that are marginalized are oftentimes received with suspicion. The household water filtration program might face challenges in the implementation phase ranging from geopolitical challenges, socioeconomic challenges and acceptance challenges.

These challenges are discussed below. The socio-economic limitation to the implementation of the household water filtration program comes from the fact that the level impoverishment of the communities might have resulted in social vices that pose a security threat to outsiders who would be viewed as intruders. 9 Conclusion The Dominican Bateyes Communities have suffered immensely from shortage of basic provisions key being health, education and water. In an attempt to alleviate the burden the settlement faces, this project chose a program under WASH that might perhaps create the greatest difference in terms socio-economic wellbeing. Given the economic status and infrastructural development level in the area, the most viable WASH program stands out to be Household Water Filtration program using the ceramic filters.