International Journal of Environmental Science and Development

Abstract—A project was undertaken to improve the livelihoods of communities in the Qacha's Nek District of Lesotho, a small country enclaved within South Africa. Basic amenities that included the participatory provision and rehabilitation of VIP latrines, and knowledge on how to site such sanitation technology in relation to water sources, were provided to double orphaned and other children, together with women and children who were HIV/AIDS patients. Individuals in the communities became more confident of their environment and health, telling that their livelihoods had been upgraded. Intestinal discomforts, for example, had reduced substantially, pointing to an upgrade of public health. Following such community intervention, a country wide sensitization on identification of technical flaws in VIP latrines in the entire country, the siting of such technology vis-a-vis the aquatic environment, and the facilitation of ways to address these flaws, are recommended.

Index Terms—VIP latrine, community intervention, public health, sustainable development.

Sunny Aiyuk is with Department of Environmental Health, Faculty of Health Sciences, National University of Lesotho, PO Roma 180, Lesotho (e-mail: se.aiyuk@nul.ls).
Mathabo Tsepa is with Lesotho High Commission, Ottawa, Canada.

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Cite: Sunny Aiyuk and Mathabo Tsepa, "Addressing Technical Flaws in VIP Latrines in Lesotho: A Community Intervention in Qacha’s Nek District," International Journal of Environmental Science and Development vol. 8, no. 8, pp. 597-600, 2017.