ASSESSMENT OF SANITATION AND HEALTH EFFECTS BY USING SANITARY TOILET

Sanitation is an access to and use of excreta and toilet facilities and services that ensure privacy and dignity, ensuring a clean and healthy living environment for all. Improved sanitation is the hygienic separation of human excreta from human contact. The United Nation estimates that 2.5 billion people, 40% of the world's population, lack access to adequate sanitation.

Traditional toilet with banana
bark wall

Bhutan has achieved only 51% of rural population to improved sanitation despite its target to achieve 80% by 2015. Poor sanitation was witnessed comparatively higher in eastern Dzongkhags; Lhuentse has the poorest sanitation followed by Pemagatshel and Samdrupjongkhar. Without toilet and unsafe disposal of human faeces pose serious risk on health which associate 30% higher risk of having diarrhea on children under five. Diarrhoeal diseases were reported as second leading cause of child deaths in the world. Moreover, poor toilet is linked to transmission of diseases such as cholera, dysentery, hepatitis A, typhoid and polio that seriously affect the physical development and cognitive performance of children. Without a proper toilet creates vulnerability, particularly for women and young girls who experience a loss of dignity. They are exposed to abuse and harassment while defecating in the open space.

The study was carried out in Dungmaed Gewog, pemagatshel in 4 villages (Laniri, Bangyuel, Mekuri and Durungri) to assess sanitation and health of the population through construction of sanitary toilet. The study also aims to examine income level of households through actively engaging in economic activities. The study found that all the households (n = 42) used some kind of toilet. The majority of households 88.1% had improved flushable toilet, 2.4% had ventilated improved pit toilet and 9.5% had unimproved traditional pit toilet. There was no incidence of child mortality related to diarrhoeal diseases since the practice of open defecation was found completely stopped. The study also found positive correlation between annual households income (M = 670000.00 SD = ±463924.04) and health condition (M = 2.36, SD = ±.485), rs = -.486, p = .001, n = 42 as the family members could earn more income with good health condition.

For further information contact:

Email: choezangsangay@gmail.com

གླུ་གཞས།

                                       ལོ་ངོ་༢༥ འཁོར་བའི་དུས་སྟོན་སློབ་གྲྭའི་བསྟོད་གླུ།

མཐོ་རིམ་སློབ་གྲྭའི་མཐོང་སྣང་།

༆རང་འབྱུང་འཐོན་བསྐྱེད་མཐོ་རིམ་སློབ་གྲྭ་འདི།། ཤར་རི་དར་བརྒྱད་ལུང་པའི་སྲོག་ཤིང་ཨིན།།

  མཛེས་པའི་ཤིང་དང་མེ་ཏོག་རྭ་བས་བསྐོར།། གསུང་སྙན་དཀྱིལཝ་སི་གླུ་དབྱངས་འཁྲབ་སྟེ་ཡོད།།

  མཛེས་བྱ་འགྲན་ཟླ་མེད་པ་ལྷ་ཡུལ་བཟུམ།། ལུང་པར་དཀོན་པའི་མཐོ་རིམ་སློབ་གྲྭ་ཨིན།།

  
  

ཚེ་སྔོན་ཚོགས་བསགས་ལས་འཕྲོག་མ་རྫོགསཔ་ལས།། ཧིང་ལས་དམ་ཚིག་ཆེ་བའི་ཆ་རོགས་དང་།།

 ཐུགས་ལ་བྱམས་བརྩེ་ལྡན་པའི་སློབ་དཔོན་རྣམས།། མི་ཚེ་དོན་དག་བཟོ་བའི་མཐའ་དོན་ལུ།།

    ད་རིས་མཐོ་རིམ་སློབ་གྲྭ་འདི་ནང་འཛོམས།། ཤེས་ཡོན་སྣ་ཚོགསའི་སྦྲང་རྩི་ལེན་ཏེ་ཡོད།། 

 
  མཐར་ཐུག་མཁས་པ་སློབ་ཕྲུག་མཐར་ཕྱིན་མཛད།། འབྲས་བུ་ཞི་གཡོག་མཐོ་བའི་གོ་གནས་བཞེས།།

  རྒྱལ་ཁམས་དབུལ་ཕོངས་དཀའ་ངལ་སེལ་ཐབས་ལུ།། འཚོ་བ་སོ་ནམ་འཐོན་བསྐྱེད་གོང་འཕེལ་དང་།།

  སྒོ་ནོར་འཐོན་ཤུགས་ཡར་རྒྱས་བཏང་སྟེ་གིས།། མི་ནགཔ་ཉམ་ཆུང་དཀའ་ངལ་སེལ་བཞིན་ཡོད།།

 

  རང་བཞིན་གནས་སྟངས་འཛིན་སྐྱོང་འཐབ་ནི་འདི།། རྩ་ཁྲིམས་ཆེན་མོའི་ཐུགས་ཀྱི་དགོངས་དོན་ཨིན།།

  བག་ཕེབས་རི་དྲྭགས་སྲོག་ཆགས་སྲུང་སྐྱོབ་ཚུ།། གླིང་འཛིན་འགོ་དཔོན་ཚུ་གིས་འཐབ་སྟེ་ཡོད།།

  ཕྱུག་པའི་རང་བཞིན་ཧོན་མོར་གནོད་རྐྱེན་མེད་།། མི་སྡེ་དཔལ་འབྱོར་གོང་འཕེལ་རྒྱས་བཞིན་ཡོད་།།

 
  དེང་སང་འཛམ་གླིང་གོང་འཕེལ་མགྱོགས་དྲག་ལས་།། གནམ་གཤིས་འགྱུར་བའི་ཚ་དྲོད་འཇིགས་པ་འཐོན།།

  མི་སྡེ་རང་བཞིན་གནོད་པའི་རྐྱེན་ངན་འབྱུང་།། ཚེ་སྲོག་གནོད་པའི་ནད་གཞི་ཡར་འཕེལཝ་མས།། 

  དེ་ཚུ་དཀའ་ངལ་གདོང་ལེན་ཐབས་ནི་ལུ།། ཡུན་བརྟན་གོང་འཕེལ་སྦྱོང་བརྡར་བྱིན་ཏེ་ཡོད།།

 

   ས་གཤིས་འགྱུར་བའི་ཟློག་ཐབས་འགན་ཁུར་འདི།། སློབ་སྦྱོང་འབད་མི་ཕོ་མོའི་ཁས་བླངས་ཨིན།།

  ད་རིས་ལོང་སྤྱོད་འབད་མི་ཐུན་རྐྱེན་ཚུ།། མ་འོངས་བུ་གཞི་ཕན་ཐབས་བདག་འཛིན་འབད།།

  ཡུན་བརྟན་གོང་འཕེལ་དམིགས་དོན་བསྒྲུབས་ཏེ་གིས།། རྒྱལ་ཡོངས་དགའ་སྐྱིད་དཔལ་འཛོམས་འབྱུང་པར་ཤོག།

 

  རྟགས་དང་རྟེན་འབྲེལ་ལེགས་པ་སློབ་གྲྭ་ནང་།། མི་ལོ་ཉེར་ལྔའི་དུས་སྟོན་བརྩི་སྲུང་ཞུ།།

  ང་བཅས་ཕྱག་དང་མཆོད་པའི་སྨོན་ལམ་བཏབ།། མཐོ་རིམ་སློབ་གྲྭ་བསྐལ་བརྒྱའི་བར་དུ་གནས།།

  ཤེས་རིག་ཡོན་ཏན་གོང་དུ་འཕེལ་བར་ཤོག། དགའ་སྐྱིད་ཕུན་སུམ་ཉི་མ་ཤར་བར་ཤོག། །། 

བཟོད་གསོལ༔ གླུ་གཞས་རྩོམ་སྒྲིག་འབད་ནི་ནང་ ཐོས་བསམ་སྒོམ་གསུམ་སོགས་གང་ཡང་མེདཔ་ལས་ མཁས་པ་དགྱེས་པའི་ 

སྙན་ཚིག་དང་ སྡེབས་སྦྱོར་ཁུངས་གཏུགས་མེད་རུང་ ང་རང་གི་ཐོས་བསམ་དང་ཉམས་མྱོང་ཆུང་ཀུ་ལས་ ཟིན་བྲིས་འབད་འབདཝ་ཨིན།

འདི་ནང་ལུ་ བརྫོད་ཚིག་མ་དགཔ་ཡིག་སྡེབས་མ་སྒྲིག་པའི་ ནོར་འཁྲུལ་ལེ་ཤ་ཡོད་སྲིདཔ་ལས་ གཟིགས་མི་ཡོངས་ལུ་ 

ཐུགས་ཀྱི་བཟོད་པ་བཞེས་གནང་ཞུ།

                         

                         བཀའ་དྲིན་ཆེ།

Eligible Local Leader is a priority, not a power!

Local government is apolitical and does not belong to any political party. An elected officials of the local government should refrain from engaging in any political activity and politics during his/her tenure in office. They should completely remain out of the horizon of politics; and hence called apolitical party.

Since its first election in June 2011, making the first round a historic movement. Now only two month are left to complete the five year terms of office and readying for another second round of election. Many didn't attempt and was in the dormant to vie for the post of Gup, Mangmi and Tshogpa. That gave confident to some of the incompetent candidates to take advantage during the election and left some stones unturned in the Gewog. Precious five years has been wasted and many of the people were not happy as their wish was not fulfilled. A story was created as people had a wish and they had a power. But now things has just become an opposite as they wish for the help and people holds the power; whom to vote for the competent candidate. Our people are far educated and learned many lesson to become a vigilant voter and cannot easily brainwash to make a prey. Politician need to be tactful and cautious to woo the public support; while the elected one must take an oath of office guided by the principle of the democracy that the power is not vested in it but consider the best interest and for the welfare of the people of Bhutan.

Unlike the first round of election, the second round seems competitive and tough. We can hear the huge wave of candidates turnout to appear the functional literacy test (FLT) equally by both women and men. This indicates good sign of participation and executing a gender equality that will determine the ones ability and confident to become a leader. However, a potential leader and its competency is assured when more number of candidates are turnout. So that our people can choose the competent candidate who will bring changes and need in the society, they can reliance that the leaders are not selected rather convinced as they are unanimously elected.  

As a contestant vying for the post of local leaders, what should be their immediate pledges to gain the people's supports? And how can they promise and fulfill those during their terms in the office? Every candidate will have setup goal and motive to fulfill an aspiration of the people not just to make oneself better. Such was the flimsy impression prevail throughout now and hardly our people believe on it. If it worsen the situation this may even lead to political repression and premature of dissolution has to reshuffle which is wastage of economic resources. Every one of us cannot expect them to come and do favor in our own doorstep. But they are elected bodies to represent the interest of local communities and fulfill their aspirations and needs through public consultation and participation in the development and management of social, economic and environmental well being. 

Today in the village,over 400,000 people do not have access to safe drinking water giving chaos to our innocent farmers in doing their daily activities. The problem is not new, but lacks prioritization in implementation of water safety plan through allocation of budget. The rural-urban migration and human-wildlife conflict is a serious issues that need to take immediate action putting the matter in the annual Dzongkhag conference and further to the Cabinet meeting. Similarly, the cases of Choeten vandalism is high in the village, more than 90 percent of Choeten has been vadalished over the year in the village. The local leaders through involvement of communities should raise concerns and sought protection to minimize the crime rate. However, these problem has been paid less attention and seems diverted their concern towards the other side.

The core value and fundamental duties of local government is to Provide democratic and accountable government for local communities through ensuring the social well-being in all times to come. A candidate must proof his/her possession of adequate skills and competency to discharge all responsibilities in a fair and equitable manner.  A competent and skillful leader is always accepted in the society and inspired that the whole community needs his/her sincere services. A good leader is encourage to move forward and serve the people where powerful leader demand respect and make people work under him/her.   

"Leadership is not about titles, positions, or flow charts. It is about one life influencing another." 

                                                                                                                                  ~ John C. Maxwell

A curse of an unemployment

Unemployment is a state where people do not have a job, have seriously looked for a work in the past but has no avail where the money is rewarded to their service. However, people with disability and those who doesn't seriously hunt for a work are excluded and are called dependent.

Today, unemployment is a serious issue and growing concern among the youth. It's an alarming situation that gives burden to the government in bringing immediate solution. Being unemployed is a serious curse but worse than a disease. It weakens physically as well as mentally that eats up the vitality of the youths. It futile the hopes and shatter the dreams that was set up from many years. The situation may further worsen and slip out of control; that will frustrate the young talented graduates and compel them to involve in anti-social activities like robbery,gang fight,sexual harassment and substance abuse. Ultimately, this will creates a disharmony in the society and incur a huge loss to the government handling the problem.

The general rate of unemployment stand at 2.6% with thousands of young graduates are left unemployed. This is not surprising that the government want to achieve the full employment rate not with the level of education but with skills and talent of the job seekers. The irony behind is it should be well equipped that the young and fresh graduates with minimum work experience, course training, interpersonal and communication skills, and the ability to work in a team with the level of their education. The loophole is created here where mismatch between job seekers and available jobs is created. The entire course in the institutions and colleges should consider and redesign to meet the gap. Besides, the learning approach and atmosphere should change in comply with the requirement in jobs sphere.

Annually, thousands of general and technical graduates are being produced. All are in hunt for a lucrative job, want only white collar job. They want to settle down promptly with comfortable shelter and want to look after their parents. However, only handful of them are absorbed as a civil servants and rest in NGOs, CSOs and Corporations. These were mainly attributed to the low salary and status, parents’ objection, poor working environment, and location of workplace. Notwithstanding to this nepotism and pre-selection of candidate is a malady that bureaucracy involved into corruption where competent youth are not selected through an interview. But an overwhelming majority of youth preferred desk jobs than the blue collar jobs that makes unemployment rate still high.

The Constitution of Bhutan clearly reflects that equal job opportunities should be given to both genders, as per their capabilities be it in any place. This arise the question regarding the unemployment in the rural areas where most of the competent youth with economically disadvantaged family are left unemployed. The political parties take full responsibility to look after them pledged to give job bagging the support and vote during the election. The ruling party had promised full employment as their political mandates and come up with new initiatives on employment promotion & facilitation programs, such as Guaranteed Employment Programs, Direct Employment Scheme, Employment Skills Programs and Overseas Employment Scheme. However, the youth are not attracted with these scheme due to security reasons as many of they have fallen prey to unscrupulous practices of consultants that jeopardize their career ahead.

As a graduate, who would also put the first hand experience and face hurdle not less than a few months later. These are some of the collective thoughts and observations I have made before. Infact, time has come nearer to face all those challenges and take opportunity sometime. As a educated and learned man; one must change notion that everything cannot provide by government. As old proverb says-"Self help is the best help". One should find out the own means by applying the collective theories into practice just to make a life brighter and solve the unemployment problem together.