| Summary: | BRAC has been promoting personal hygiene practices and the use of safe water and sanitary
latrines through its Rural Development Programme (RDP) since 1991. RDP sold a large
number of latrines (45,000 as of June 1995) in it's operational areas (including Matlab) as part
of a drive to improve rural sanitation through NGO forum. To study the impact of this on
health as part of BRAC-ICDDR,B research framework in Matlab, it is important to understand
how this programme is implemented. To provide feedback to the programme, this study aimed
to explore the current status of the latrines sold by RDP in Matlab.
A total of 262 latrines (one latrine per household) were sold by RDP's Essential Health Care
(EHC) at Matlab during July 1994 to October 1995. Data were collected during November December
1995 from the persons to whom (mostly female) the latrines were sold, using a
str..lctUred questionnaire. Of these 262 latrines, a little more than 60% were installed and
around 12% of the installed latrines remained unused. The government subsidy (declared in
July 1995) was a major factor motivating the villagers to buy latrines. Sixty nine percent of the
recipients bought latrines after declaration of government subsidy, and only 10% after
motivation by BRAC health workers. Some VO members mentioned that they bought slab
latrines because they were assured of getting the government subsidy or housing loan by the
BR..\C staff. The reasons for not setting up latrines even after buying these from BRAC office
were: want of additional money to build the structure of the latrine (49%); not getting the
promised government subsidy (37%); and inundation by flood (12.5%).
From the findings of this study following recommendations are made: 1) RDP may encourage
the villagers to use inexpensive local materials for constructing latrines; alternatively, loans may
be given to the BRAC-eligible buyers to cover the cost of constructing the latrine structure
and other ancillary expenditures; 2) close monitoring of installation by the local BRAC
management is needed; and 3) more effort is required to follow up latrine recipients to identifY
obstacles in installation and use after they received slabs and rings and provide necessary help
in overcoming those.
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