2022 Seed Grant Award Problem Statements 

Water / Sanitation

Problem #12:  The High Prevalence of Open Defecation in Rural Areas with Limited Access to Water Leads to Various Diseases

Country/Region of execution: Laos
Collaborating Organization: World Concern
World Concern, an international relief and development agency founded in 1955, focuses on the needs of the poorest and most vulnerable within society, providing capacity-building for partners while having the flexibility to respond to disasters through relief and rehabilitation assistance. Currently, World Concern implements roughly $30 million in programming in its 10 country offices located throughout Africa, Asia, and the Americas. Since 1991, WCDO has received, implemented and administered grants in excess of $59 million from USAID. WCDO headquarters is based in Seattle, WA, and the Laos country office is located in Pakse City, Champassack Province.
Problem Statement Description:  This problem is associated with SDG 6: Ensuring sustainable water and sanitation. Lao PDR remains the highest in Southeast Asia when it comes to poor water, sanitation, and hygiene practices. The high prevalence of open defecation is still a significant concern. According to the latest study conducted by WHO and UNICEF in 2015, an estimated 38% and 23% of the total population in rural and urban settings, respectively, practice open defecation and even higher to communities of ethnic minorities and the highlands that have limited access to water. In communities without proper sanitation facilities, human waste can contaminate a community’s land and water, increasing the risk of the infection cycle of many disease-causing agents, contributing to the spread of many diseases/conditions that can cause widespread illness and death. People often have no choice but to live in and drink water from an environment contaminated with human waste. World Concern has been investing in decreasing the prevalence of open defecation and improving proper waste segregation by establishing latrines and community education campaigns working alongside community groups and government counterparts. However, even where latrines are available, other factors linked to poverty, lack of time and skills to maintain, long distances to a water source, and limited water access lead to low latrine utilization rates. World Concern proposes to Purdue University to create a latrine technology that will require limited or less water usage, will avoid contamination of surface water and topsoil, can be constructed with minimum cost using local material and local skills, will allow easy cleaning, will turn human waste into a resource material and is acceptable to Lao culture.