I recently attended a mass gathering in Michaiya, Siraha featuring a number of themes: one house, one toilet, Green Michaiya and less pollution. There were more than 600 people in attendance with many school children having marched throughout the community prior to attending the gathering featuring some great drama regarding the issues surrounding open defecation, as well as, numerous speeches. According to the 2011 Nepali census in Ramnagar Michaiya, 48% of households (total 2580 households; population 13,477) have no toilets.
School children carried a variety of signs showing people openly defecating, people cleaning up garbage, "Stop polluting, continue living", "Style is an option, clean is not", "Healthy environment, makes healthier people". Although the day was quite cold there was very much a festive atmosphere but I was looking for more.
I wanted to see stalls from NGOs, the government and private sector indicating the next steps in creating one household, one toilet and how to make the City greener. There was one toilet in back of the stage, which might have been for demonstration purposes, but there was no, as far as I could tell, health information handed out about the problems associated with open defecation or how to actually motivate people not to throw garbage wherever they happened to be standing. I also didn't see any dustbins.
The idea behind a mass awareness raising campaign is very positive, and I know that one has to walk before running, but how many people without toilets attended the event and where was a collaborative effort to actually show solutions to these very troubling issues? I asked a number of children what they would do and they said we will ask our teacher, although a few provided me with responses about not polluting. Just think how much more effective this might have been if children were asked to create solutions and highlight these at stalls throughout the venue? What if there were NGOs showing how to build less expensive toilets and offering micro loans to people in order to provide further motivation?
Where were the people or social business entrepreneurs to discuss creating community toilets, which would further bring the Michaiya community together; organizing people to not only build toilets but also to plan how to keep them clean, which could lead to a better community. What about those working in the bio-gas field who could take a toilet and turn it into an energy producing activity alleviating the need for natural gas of which many times there are shortages in the market. Where were the health professionals, maybe medical institutions offering free screenings to people and talking further about how open defecation creates huge health problems?
Maybe I'm asking too much and maybe the organizers realized this and are planning further functions. What I saw was a huge opportunity; this is the way in which I live in the world. I could see every household or at least a group of households sharing a community toilet. I could see people reminding one another to not throw their garbage in the streets, but to organize community collections with each household owning garbage cans, including those for recycling, which could be emptied by entrepreneurs or the municipality. I could imagine every school in Michaiya leading recycling campaigns and using the money earned to plant school gardens, ensuring eating a variety of nutritious foods on a regular basis. These same children would be out in the community helping to build community toilets, making bio-gas connections and learning to be entrepreneurs.
It's not difficult to transform society, but does take persistence, being pro-active, dreams, attitude changes, long-term planning, follow through and implementation, an ability to collaborate, a willingness to compromise and not needing ego satisfaction. My hope is that Michaiya will become a leader among the municipalities of Nepal leading the way in wiping out open defecation and becoming one of the cleanest cities in the country.
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