Yangon Division/ Myanmar

Potable Water an Health Supply for 150.000 People in the Township of Thongwa

The township of Thongwa is about 60 kilometres southeast of the capital Yangon. The costal areas of the Moattama Mangelware golf, are dominated by morasses therefore clean drinking water is rare. Further only few people in this region have access to basis healthcare services. In particular children suffer from chronic worm infections and diarrhoea due to the bad water quality.

Situation

To improve the access to basic health care services, the focus of our work is medical equipment for and training of Community Health workers (CHW) and Traditional Birth Assistances (TBA) . They live in remote villages and are accepted within the communities. Their knowledge furthers health education in these areas. To facilitate submission of the ill to rural health centres, Malteser renovates these, when necessary, supplies rainwater tanks and latrines as well as technical-medical equipment. Health courses brush up the staffs knowledge. Health education campaigns are carried out in schools and villages to improve the knowledge about hygiene, mother child health care as well as malnutrition. In schools this knowledge is transmitted to pupils; the construction and usages of latrines as well as using soap when washing your hands or providing clean drinking rainwater tanks. The pupils again carry their knowledge back to their families. To improve the hygiene situation in households too, families in particular need obtain materials to built their own latrine. Combining health and hygiene with access to clean drinking water completes our integrated basic health care project. Since the ground water in this region is salty, people from the village depend on rain as source of potable water. During the five month long rainy season, the rain is collected in so called village ponds and conserved in clay jugs in front of the houses. To improve the access to clean drinking water the villages ponds are cleaned together with the villagers. Where possible the ponds are provided with basic sand filtering and a fence that will protect them from grazing animals. After our project activities had started in one of the five districts in the end of 2001, our activities were extended to a second district in particular need. Since October 2003 the other three district have been successfully participating in this project, which serves to insure the supply of dinking water and basic health care in the township of Thongwa.

Goals

Ensure the supply of drinking water and improve the hygiene situationEnsure sustainable basic health care and health education

Measures

Hygiene and drinking water:

Hygiene education campaigns in villages and schoolConstruction of latrines protected against flies at all schools and health centresProvision of material and instruction for the construction of simple latrines for householdsConstruction of tanks for the collection of rainwater at all schools and health centresCleaning and protection of water tanks in close cooperation with the villagers. The installation of basic sand filters is desirable where possibleIntroduction and training of volunteers that have been selected by the villagers for maintenance and reparation worksof the water tanks, filters and protections of the village ponds

Health:

Training of voluntary Community Health Workers and Traditional Birth AssistantsHealth precautions such as education campaigns in the field of family planning, infant and child care, malnutrition as well as infections diseasesExtension of the existing basic health care via supporting the rural health centres and the two hospitalsTraining of local and governmental health staff

Project data