Tanahu celebrates being free of open defecation

19 July 2012: It was a celebration of a different sort in Damauli yesterday.  The headquarters of Tanahun district saw over 40,000 people decked in their festive finery.  A show of the rich cultural heritage of the district. School children waving placards and festoons.  Dignitaries of high order. Song and dance.. and a lot of handwashing!  Even the heavens seem to understand the import of the moment and held at bay the monsoon showers.  It was a special moment.  Special because the district was declared open defecation free (ODF)! 

Tanahun was also the first district to initiate a "District Sanitation Basket Fund" a pool of Budgets and Programmes, including contributions from VDCs, DDCs, donors and programmes from district line agencies. UNICEF is also providing funds in the same basket fund.  Tanahun is also a pioneer in building Eco-San toilets in schools, especially in those areas with water shortage, as well as in targeting toilets for the poor families.

Tanahun’s success with the sanitation movement is said to lie in the high level of political commitment.  This was evident also in the presence of many political leaders past and present in the ODF celebrations. Another reason it was able to achieve total sanitation is also credited with its partnership with the media in the entire campaign.

Before the arrival of the chief guests the venue started to be filled by a procession of groups representing various groups and organisations.  The school children who had come in early carrying placards with various sanitation-related messages...

 .. they were seated beneath colourful canopies already

There were many many groups represented at the venue

... who took their turn to file past playing music, dancing along the way...

 
The celebrations were graced soon by the Hon. Vice President Mr. Paramananda Jha as Chief Guest. Here he is entering the venue for the celebrations welcomed by the Local Development Officer of Tanahun, Mr. Chhabi Lal Rijal

The Vice President takes his seat in the pavilion

UNICEF Nepal Representative Ms. Hanaa Singer was also among the special invitees to the ODF celebrations. Here she is along with Mr. Purushottam Acharya, Chief, UNICEF Nepal, Central and Western Zone Office

Other invitees included former Ministers and Constituent Assembly members, high ranking government officials, and other regional and district level officials, donors, political party representatives, former DDC officials and representatives from NGOs, community based organisations, child club networks, media, unions, private sector, schools, colleges and other vocational institutions, Female Community Health Volunteers, youth clubs, Scouts, Red Cross Volunteers, sportsmen/women as well as various ethnic and cultural organisations.   And of course the local people, who converged in the open space in Damauli in droves dressed in their best. 
The invitees were all seated under canopies that were as colourful as the celebration itself!

Below Ms. Singer is introduced to former ministers  and lawmakers Mr. Bhim Prasad Gautam (in cap) and Mr. Suresh Ale Magar

The guests are all welcomed with marigold garlands. Seated l to r is MoFALD Secretary Mr. Sital babu Regmi, former Minister Mr. Bhim Prasad Gautam, and Ms. Hanaa Singer 

Other guests of honour included (from l to r) Mr. Kari Leppanen, Development Counsellor , Embassy of Finland,  former minister Mr. Thakur Sharma, and Regional Administrator Mr. Damodar Regmi.

The ODF declaration started with the Chief Guest, the Hon Vice President unveiling a ceremonial plaque.

 Next was the signing of the flex that congratulated the people of Tanahun on their great achievement of making their district free of open defecation.  The Chief Guest was the first to put his signature.

Other guests followed, including Ms. Singer

Former Minister Mr. Gautam puts his signature on a Commitment Banner where signatories pledged to keep on working for ODF and post ODF follow-up.  A total of 15,109 signatures were added to the banner that day!

The official plaque of ODF certification from the National Sanitation & Hygiene Coordination  Committee was also jointly handed over by the Vice President and other guests to the District WASH Coordination Committee.

Tanahun DWASHCC Secretary and the Chariperson (the LDO) display Tanahun's trophy!

The Chief Guest also handed over a cheque of Rupees 3000000 to District Development Committee of Tanahun on behalf of the Rural Water Supply & Sanitation Project-Western Nepal (RWSSP-WN) for their special role in the ODF campaign.

Then followed unveiling of the commemorative information booklet on the ODF Celebrations by the Chief Guest

The booklet contains many details about Tanahun's total sanitation drive. For example, it has all the data and statistics:  Half of the toilets in nearly 70,000 households in the district were built following the launch of the campaign in autumn 2009. This averaged to 26 new toilets being built each day in the district!  The campaign was worth $600,000 with contributions from local bodies, line agencies, government agencies donors, NGOs, community forest users groups, media, individuals and last but not the least, the community, who contribution in kind and in labour amounted to 80% of the total budget.

679 of the 681 schools in the district have toilets and 613 of them have water supply facilities too. The two schools that have yet to have toilets are the newly affiliated schools, and budget has already been allocated for construction of toilets in the very near future for these too. Public toilets have been constructed in nearly half a dozen places in the district, including along the main highway.

Candles were lit to commemorate the positivity that prevailed in Tanahun that afternoon.

There were more than a dozen felicitatory speeches from various guests and officials, including from Ms. Singer who congratulated the people of Tanahun for doing Poet Bhanubhakta proud by making sure they left a legacy behind, and not to repent like the poet did as he penned "धिक्कार हो मकन बस्नु नराखी कीर्ति !"  in his Ghaansi poem.

The speeches were interspersed with songs and dances.. representing the multi-ethnic makeup of the district.. like this kauda dance of the Gurungs

the lakhey dance of the Newars

The local 9-member musical ensemble.. the naumati baja.. were part of the gala event 

Children from the local martial art club in their uniforms...

... some who displayed their art to the visitors and guests

Displaying the cultural heritage of Tanahun.. these women dressed in their best finery.. jantar, naugedi and all

Tamu group lead the procession of school children

During one of the speech breaks,  Rupa Sunar, a 10th  grader from  Shree Pharakchour Higher Secondary School, in Vyas Municipality sang a "Sanitation Song" reflecting the pride and joy the district people felt on the occasion. "No defecation allowed inside Tanahun,  Welcome to all of you to an open defecation free zone!" she crooned.

Next the Chief Guest handed over Certificates and Letters of Appreciation to various personalities and institutions who made significant contribution to make Tanahun ODF.

Chairperson of Chandika Primary School was felicitated for being the first school in Tanahun to declare its catchment area free of open defecation in 2006.

Headmaster of Shanti Lower Secondary School, was awarded for building the first Eco-Sanitation Toilet in Nepal

Similarly Bandipur VDC was felicitated for organising the first Sanitation Festival in Nepal in 2008

Speaking to the public following the felicitation ceremony, the Chief Guest Hon. Paramananda Jha congratulated the coordinated and concerted effort and dedication of all the people, including children, of Tanahun.

After that it was time for distribution of "Tokens of Love" and various other forms of appreciation.  Rows of Buddha statuettes waiting to be handed over to individuals for their special contribution in the ODF campaign

 Ms. Hanaa Singer receiving the Token of Love on behalf of UNICEF from LDO Mr. Rijal the District WASH Committee.

Many individuals present on the occasion were honoured for their contribution too. Honours being done by MoFALD Secretary Mr. Sital Babu Regmi

Partners in progress standing together during ODF celebrations . (from l to r) Mr. Namaste Lal Shrestha, UNICEF WASH Specialist, Ms. Hanaa Singer, UNICEF Nepal Representative, Mr. Bhupendra Bahadur Basnet, Director General, DOLIDAR, and Mr. Suman Prasad Sharma, Director General, DWSS.

Even though the official programme concluded following that, people lingered longer in the celebration venue, as there was lots to do, and see.  These included dances, songs and cultural programme from different cultural groups representing different VDCs and also from neighboring Chitwan district. 

There was also a photo exhibition with pictures showing the progress of the ODF campaign in the past three years.

There were many stalls with various sanitation-related items for display and distribution...

And then of course there were the handwashing stations. What is total sanitation with handwashing, the cheapest vaccine of all. A total of 10,551 people washed their hands with soap and water during the ODF celebrations!

Tips on the 6 steps of handwashing were demonstrated to the old...

... and young alike... "Between the fingers too!!!"

What made the ODF ceremony even more unique in Tanahun was the construction of temporary Eco-San urinals.  Urine from all those visitors and guests who used the facility was collected and taken to Chitwan by the NGO Sewa Nepal that is promoting  Eco-San toilets in Chitwan and other districts.

And to end.. snippets of the speech delivered by Ms. Hanaa Singer

"...I strongly believe that these kinds of novel initiatives will become great milestones in meeting the national goal of hundred per cent toilet coverage throughout the country by 2017...

...The campaign  that you have started with ODF is actually a huge social movement that will  improve the health, nutrition, education, tourism, social and environmental development of this district.  It will turn out to be a ground-breaking achievement for the long term sustainable development of Tanahun and Nepal..."  

Text by Rupa Joshi. Photos by Purushottam Acharya, and UNICEF Nepal