A Case Study on Health and Sanitation Problems in Barapita Village, Odisha, India Hemanta Adhikari, Pemba Sherpa, and Rosy Zel

Introduction

According to the United Nations, adequate access to clean

and safe water is recognized to be a human right, but

globally, many individuals are denied their basic rights.

Villagers who reside in a rural area in India are unaware of

the risk and diseases related to poor drinking-water access,

unimproved sanitation, and poor hygiene practices. Our

project worked to develop a solution to bridge the gap

between health/sanitation awareness among the villagers.

Methods

Human-Centered Design- approach to a higher quality

solution that best meet the needs of the villagers. The process

begins with villagers who are facing obstacles and is complete

when we develop a solution that meets the needs of the

participants who are deeply affected. This methods was highly

effective because the solution was designed keeping the

villagers in mind.

Co-Design Workshop

This method is also known as generative design which allowed

the villagers to participate and get involved in helping find the

solution to their problems. This helped us increase the degree

of satisfaction and support toward the product leading it to

produce a higher quality solution.

• Group sketching: The women of the villagers who

attended the workshop were divided into three different

groups. The group was tasked to draw out an ideal home.

This helped us better understand if the villagers believed

toilets were necessary or not in the house.

• Poster cards: Each participant was provided with sticky

notes where they had to write the advantages and

disadvantages of open defecation and toilet usage. The

purpose was to better understand the villager’s

perspective on open defecation and toilet usage.

• Interviews (Surveys): A set of questionnaires was put

together with the help of two doctors from Amrita Institute

of Medical Sciences. The door-to-door surveys were

essential because this allowed us to understand the

villagers on an individual level.

Results

Figure A: neque dignissim, and in aliquet nisl et umis.

After spending roughly about a week among the villagers,

we have witnessed two main obstacles that the villagers

face in their everyday lives;

1. Lack of water distribution

2. Lack of awareness

For years, the villagers have been utilizing the canal as their

main source of water since it is easily accessible. However,

the canal water is highly polluted and contaminated. In the

village, there are four hand-pumps but only two are safe to

use. In addition to that, the surveys indicated that the

villagers have minimal knowledge on proper sanitation

behavior.

According to the village coordinator, Ashit Ji, out of 65

houses in the village, there are 49 toilets, and only 7 houses

use them. Moreover, most of the toilets that were built for the

villagers by the government in 2016 are not usable due to

maintenance and construction problems.

Conclusion

After our observations and studying the surveys, we came

to conclude that in order for the solution to be successful,

we need the resources along with an awareness campaign.

Constructing the toilets is essential, but more importantly,

promoting the practice of healthy sanitation behavior will

make the solution more effective. In addition, providing the

villagers with more accessible resources such as more

handpumps throughout the village will prevent diseases

from spreading and make the community a better place to

live.

Acknowledgement

We would also like to express our gratitude to Dr. Lisa

Vahapolgu, Dr. P. Geetha, Mr. Souresh Cornet, and Mr.

Krishnan Nandanan for guiding us throughout this project.

Moreover, we would also like to express appreciation to UB

Community for Global Health Equity for funding this

experiential learning.

References

Maguire, Martin. "Methods to support human-centred design." International journal of human- computer studies 55, no. 4 (2001): 587-634.

Mohd, R., and I. Malik. "Sanitation and Hygiene Knowledge,Attitude and Practices in Urban Setting of Bangalore: A Cross-Sectional Study." Journal Community Medicine HealthEducation 7, no. 540 (2017): 2161-0711.

"Odisha (Orissa) Tribes." Orissa tourism. Accessed January 13,2019. https://www.orissatourism.org/orissa-tribes.html

www.buffalo.edu/globalhealthequity

As the chart above indicates, out of the 30 houses that we

surveyed, 4 houses do not have toilets at all, and all of the

existing toilets in the village were built during 2016 as a part

of Swachh Bharat Abhiyan with a primary goal to make India

Open defecation free.