84 percent of Ntchisi villages defecate openly

Only 16 percent of villages in Ntchisi are open defecation-free (ODF), a status which puts 84 percent of the villages in the district at risk of sanitation-related diseases.

Ntchisi district community services officer Victor Matayataya said this is abnormal, as such, they have sensitisation programmes to encourage people to build and use toilets although most of such work is done by stakeholders on sanitation who have projects in the district to curb open defecation.

Said Matayataya: “At district level we have in our action plan civic education programmes where, among other activities, we hold open days where we tell people about benefits of having and using latrines. We want people when constructing a house to make it a package where they build a house, a kitchen, a latrine and a bathroom.”

He said this on the sidelines of an event organised by World Vision celebrating the declaration that 50 percent of villages in Traditional Authority (T/A) Nthondo have built latrines in the past three months.

This, according to programme manager for Nthondo area, Harold Munthali, is impressive because they targeted 78 villages and only 28 have failed, which gives hope that the remaining ones are most likely going to build with influence from the successful ones.

Sosten Banda, a resident of Kayera Village in T/A Nthondo is one of the people who had no toilet, but has now constructed one for his household. He said he is looking forward to a healthier life.