ATC
and WaterAid partnered to carry out a project aimed at mainstreaming access to
WASH by, among other activities, producing a technical guide. This
project is based on the premise that access to WASH is a human right and that
the conventional design of facilities does not cater for some minority groups
of people in society such as the disabled, elderly, little children,
chronically ill, menstruating women to mention but a few. The
first phase of this project included consultations with key stakeholders in the
wash sector, desk study and literature review and technical audit of sampled
households and institutions. Results indicate that; some of the identified factors responsible for the inequitable access to WASH services include; the absence of regulation or policy, utter insensitivity, dominance of private sector players in WASH sector, perceived minority of marginalized groups and the lack of best-practice models to emulate. The
identified panacea to the plight of marginalized groups in WASH lies in the
increased sensitization of the masses in order to increase awareness and
concern, popularizing of universal model inclusive designs, modification of
existing facilities and constant supervision and inspection of new designs. |
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