Evaluation of a rural sanitation program in Vanuatu with management recommendations.

In 1988, a rural sanitation program was initiated on Vanuatu with funds from UNICEF Pacific. The Ministry of Health aimed to increase the use of Ventilated Improved Pit (VIP) latrines from 12% to 65% by providing materials to construct nearly 20,000 VIP latrines. When foreign funds ceased in 2001, the Ministry of Health (MOH) surveyed the communities and found that approximately 60% of the constructed latrines were in poor condition or not in use. Between 28 Nov and 9 Dec 2003, I conducted community focus groups and latrine surveys with 19 villages in three geographic regions on Tanna Island, in Tafea Province, Vanuatu, and interviewed the regional health nurses in these regions. My findings indicate that VIP toilets are not widely used on Tanna, as a result of inadequate knowledge on latrine construction and maintenance, and the ventilation pipe, meant to reduce flies and odor, is used improperly. The sanitation program on Tanna needs to be reinstated, but should target a small number of communities at a time to ensure that community education and capacity building are specific to the needs of each village. The MOH will need to trial innovative ways to train and pay for community-level sanitation officers; suggestions are provided in this report.