Not a pretty sight: the row over Sri Lanka's camp toilets
by: Amjad Mohamed-Saleem
Ever since the final days of Sri Lanka's offensive against the Tamil Tigers sent hundreds of thousands of people fleeing, aid agencies have been struggling to cope with the needs of the displaced. Add to that the operational restrictions imposed by the authorities, and it has been a challenging environment to work in.
Not helping matters is a standoff between the government and the NGO community that is manifesting itself in the local media. Every day there seems to be an article in the newspapers with regards to what the agencies are not doing. The latest issue is the state of toilets - or lack of them - in the camps in Vavuniya.
The government says it is the United Nations and its humanitarian agency partners who are responsible for building the toilets. It may come as no surprise to some that the government is not happy with the quality and design of the toilets, which can best be described as open pit latrines with some wooden supports to cover the area. Once the pit is filled, you dig a new one somewhere else.
For reasons I am grappling to understand, most standard post-emergency operating procedures follow a process in which the initial response to a disaster is to provide 'temporary shelters and toilets'. The next phase is the 'transitional' or 'semi-permanent shelters and toilets', and then you get to the 'permanent shelter and toilets'.
The argument is that by building 'temporary' structures, people's right to return to their homes - in itself a political issue - is reinforced. In the eyes of the agencies, anything that is built of a semi-permanent nature is tantamount to encouraging people not to return.
Critics say the problem is that agencies then end up spending almost double - by buying materials and paying labour costs to build a shelter, then paying to pull it down so that a permanent shelter can be built on the same piece of land. In the case of post-tsunami reconstruction, the cost of transitional shelters sometimes exceeded the repairs to people's damaged houses.
POLITICISED ARGUMENT
The argument falls a little bit flat when it comes to toilets and sanitation. In displacements such as this, which involve huge numbers of people, sanitation is often the weakest link and a vicious cycle of poor sanitation, hygiene and health is perpetuated. Whatever the nature or the duration of the emergency, one issue of utmost importance is the need to ensure basic human dignity with regards to sanitation.
The government wants slightly better designed toilets which take into consideration local cultural values. However, the U.N. (and other humanitarian agencies) are concerned that by building anything deemed 'transitional or semi-permanent', this might 'encourage' the displaced to remain in the camps. This is where the confusion arises for me. Surely building a good toilet will ensure less disease? At the end of the day, I am certain that given the choice, people will not stay because their toilet facilities are better! These displaced deserve the best that they can get. This means that there should not be any compromise on the basic needs like their toilets.
The issues have become politicised. Most agencies are quietly saying that there should not be anything done of a semi-permanent nature because this would be feeding into the government's agenda of not resettling the people and keeping them in these camps. It is interesting to note that many of the agencies protesting the need for these recently displaced people to return, are the same ones that have not considered the many hundreds of thousands who have been uprooted over the last 20 years of this conflict.
Rellated: Water and sanitation in (post) conflict areas of N-East Sri Lanka ~ by Herald Vervoorn [TC]
4 Comments
Its very funny(pathetic) how these NGOs and INGOs scavenge on peoples miseries in times of disaster for there own pathetic existence.
The people of Vanni have braved rains of bullets and artillery to cross over to the government controlled areas. Many of them are injured and unless they have the necssary medicine , adequate food, and clean shelters, good sanitation facilities- including clean water and clean toilet facilities dieseses will tend to spread which could endanger the lives of the elderly injured and the weak.
It seems that there is a engineered campaign to obstruct the efforts to address the needs of the people in the IDP camps.
Any fool can understand that if basic sanitation is deprived then dieases will tend to spread rapidly and people will die as a result- spreading chaos and fear among people. The foreign news agencies will be quick to make a carnival out of it and foul cry genocide etc etc.
Now the WHITE MAN(western Nations) cant scream that the sri lankan military is massacaring the innocent civillians since the military campaign is over. So they exploit other means to make the tamil people suffer with the hope that the tamil youths would somehow reorganise and rebel. There only ambition is to destabilise Sri Lanka and the WHITE MAN is using the tamils as pawns to full fill there evil campaign.
The government should counter this western evil agenda by bringing all the NGOs and INGOs responsible for providing sanitation to an open press conference.
This way the the general public will know who exactly is the culptrit behind the mísery of the Vanni people.
The tamil diaspora should realize that the Western Nations does not give a damn about there welfare. The reasont Vanni events is evidence about the betrayal by the WHITE MAN.
Its high time we Sri Lankans put aside our differences and work together with the country before self attitude for the betterment of our next generation.
This is also a good opportunity for the remaining LTTE overseas network to cooperate with the Sri Lankan government in providing for the needs of our tamil brothers and sisters who have become victims of catastrophic policies of both the previous governments and of the LTTE themselves.
If the LTTE do not come forward to do something for the resettlement of the tamil people, with time they would eventually loose there credibility in the Sri Lankan political arena.
May God be with Sri Lanka
JSSM
In other words the s - - t has hit the fan. The attitude of the GOSL with regrd to the well being of IDP's is unbelievable. NGO's are required only to build 5 star cultural toilets for them and nothing else matters. With regards to more pressing matters such as Human rights and access to the process fo law, nothing is said.
If the government is so concerned why doesnt it build proper toilets with its own money? If there is money for hundreds of dignitaries to jet around all over the world staying at the most expensive suites in world capitals, If there is enough money to build replica Ruvanveliseyas all over the country, then there should be enough to build proper toilets for its own people.
There is something not right in the government unnecessarily incarcerating these people and then expecting international donors who they vilify almost daily to foot the bill. There is a growing concern that these people are not going to be free come December. Why cant they release the people who have already been screened? They will need to screen and release at least 1500 each day to reach their own target.
Its is funny to read the way these INGO intellects (Idiots) are thinking- "having better toilets encourage these people to stay in IDP camps". This is not the mind set of sri lankan tamils but may be ealam tamil toilet suckers. But SL gvt must act fast and take care of theses people.