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Towards sustainable hygiene practices in Abidjan

Countries
Côte d'Ivoire
Sources
ACTED
Publication date
Origin
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ACTED has begun activities for a sustainable hygiene and sanitation project for vulnerable households and a school catchment area in three precarious neighbourhoods of the Abidjan district in Cote d’Ivoire. The project aims at improving sanitation conditions of vulnerable populations in those areas, with sustainable access to sanitation and the promotion of good hygiene practices, with support from the European Commission.

Simply by passing through the Kennedy Clouetcha neighbourhood in the Abobo commune of Abidjan offers a perspective on the living conditions and challenges faced daily by inhabitants: exposure to waterborne diseases due to lack of sanitation, absence of a reliable waste water and household waste management systems, streets’ chronic insalubrity, etc.

To face such hygiene needs, ACTED and partner Pan-African intergovernmental agency for water and sanitation in Africa (EAA) are committed to bring about integrated and sustainable solutions to these issues. ACTED teams are mobilised to contribute to the improvement of sanitation and hygiene conditions in two neighbourhoods of the Abobo commune and one neighbourhood in the Yopougon commune, as part of a vast three-year project.

The aim is to set up a complete and sustainable sanitation system including the collection and management of waste, supported by the installation of more than 300 EcoSan latrines for households in 150 common courtyards and 8 within the Clouetcha school catchment area with collective handwashing facilities for all, the evacuation and purification of household waste water with the provision of 150 washing places and a sewer network, supporting pre-waste collection in the neighbourhoods, as well as hygiene promotion activities.

EcoSan techniques used in the project respond in an innovative and cost-effective way to tangible needs in terms of hygiene in an urban area.

An approach based on community participation

Construction activities will involve 13,500 people from local communities that benefit from the project, and who will also take part in awareness raising and training sessions destined to strengthen capacities ok key civil society actors.

The project is part of the dynamic kick-started in 2012 by institutional, national and international partners with the Cote d’Ivoire National Development Programme (PND 2012-2015).

During the official launch ceremony that took place in the Kennedy Clouetcha and Sagbé neighbourhoods of the Abobo commune, a participant cited a popular saying: “The Elephant dies but the tusks remain,” meaning that it is now time for action, and that populations become the main actors of their neighbourhood’s development and in the improvement of their living conditions.