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Success Story

Photo: USAID/Kaukab Jhumra Smith

Residents of the village of Chulundrian in northern Pakistan’s Konch Valley unload supplies provided by USAID for building sanitation facilities near their homes. “We have seen our health and cleanliness improve,” said Mohammed Yusuf of Jagori village in Pakistan’s northern Konch Valley, where USAID helped rebuild sanitation and bathing facilities.

Most houses and sanitation facilities in Konch Valley in Pakistan’s North West Frontier Province were destroyed in a massive earthquake in October 2005. After the quake, which damaged reservoirs and pipes bringing fresh spring water to villages, valley residents desperately needed winter shelter and access to sanitation facilities. Although some bathrooms were left standing, residents were too afraid to use them for fear that they would collapse. Villagers would walk long distances to streams to get drinking water and to bathe. But the lack of sanitation was not just uncomfortable — it was dangerous. Without designated toilettes and bathing areas, the risk of disease grew as existing water sources and the surrounding environment became contaminated.

To rebuild water delivery and sanitation systems and to improve awareness of hygiene, USAID funded an effort to build facilities for communities in Mansehra District. Nearly 30,000 people in 53 villages in the Konch Valley received winterized shelter kits that included equipment to build bathrooms next to their homes. The program identified the number of facilities necessary for each community and asked local carpenters to help build them, who were paid about $6 a day for their work. Each bathroom cubicle took about two hours to build. In addition, an education effort taught villagers how to use USAID-supplied materials and the importance of keeping facilities 90 feet away from water sources.

“We had no such facilities even before the earthquake,” said Abdul Waris of Chulundrian, a village perched 7,000 feet above sea level in Konch Valley that became accessible by dirt road only a few years ago. “The biggest advantage is the privacy they provide. This will help our ability to stay clean.”

USAID also supported a community-based hygiene promotion campaign that educated more than 22,000 people about disease prevention, waste management, and general cleanliness in the region. By educating people about better hygiene and sanitation habits, USAID is helping to create healthier communities in Pakistan today and for generations to come.

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