Objective
Make sanitation safety planning (SSP) the standard way Agago District plans and monitors sanitation after villages are declared open defecation free.
The problem
When a village is declared ODF, monitoring often stops at counting latrines. Pits fill, slabs crack and sludge is emptied unsafely, so health risks return even where every household has a toilet. Sanitation safety planning looks at risks along the whole chain: the toilet, emptying, transport and disposal.
What we did
- Revised the district's community-led total sanitation and post-ODF monitoring tools, including household forms and the ODF verification indicators and checklist, so that they check for sanitation safety gaps.
- Brought the district Health and Water departments together to agree how SSP fits into routine monitoring.
- Briefed journalists in Agago on sanitation safety and prepared a policy brief for the Ministry of Health.
- Shared the approach with practitioners at the Lango-Acholi WASH Learning Forum.
Results
Revised post-ODF monitoring tools with sanitation safety checks; a policy brief for national decision makers.