Composting Latrine with IOM

In January, myself, Health Committee President Atilio, and his brother Javier built a Composting Latrine through funds from a project with the International Organization for Migration.  The IOM is a UN Organization that has a 2-year project in the Comarca Emberá-Wounaan, Cemaco funded 100% by USAID.  The latrine was built as part of the Casa de Congreso Local, an office/meeting space.  Originally the IOM was going to build a Pit Latrine, but after my Health Promotion seminars the Dirigente (community leader) asked for a Composting Latrine.

At first, I wasn’t thrilled about the way the latrine was being introduced to the community.  In reality, this latrine won’t be used by any of the community members.  It is meant to be used by visitors when they come to the community.  The community and IOM were fine with this, but the idea bothered me.  Should we be prioritizing the sanitation needs of visitors to the community, or those who live there?

I stopped pressing for the latrine to go to a household, because that was simply not going to happen.  I realized that this could be turned into a useful step in terms of the community’s sanitation practice:

• The Dirigente asked IOM for a Composting Latrine, and would be able to do that with other organizations in the future.
•  I can train Atilio on how to build the latrine, who as Health Committee President can then train others.
•  People can see how the latrine is built, used, and maintained – even if only from observation

Atilio worked construction in Panamá City for 10 years, and is a very skilled worker.  Once I gave him the idea of what we wanted to build, he built it.  I only had to guide him on the basic design.  It was a lot of fun building together, and I learned a lot from him.  It also showed the community what they could do with the Peace Corps, if we work together.