Cristina Estrada in Trinidad, Bolivia
August 18 is not just a date. It is a marginalized community on the outskirts of Trinidad, a town in the Bolivian Amazon. This community emerged in 1985, when a market was created to sell local products. The sellers built precarious houses around the market, and in turn more settlers came. Today, Trinidad is a community of some 260 families.
Many of its inhabitants are indigenous people from the Tipnis region, located between the Isidoro and Sepore rivers, tributaries of the Mamoré, which itself feeds into the Amazon, two to three days by boat from the city. For its inhabitants, these rivers are their main transport route, their source of income and their natural calendar, marking the flooding seasons, when they have to move to higher ground for months.
Not long ago, these cyclical floods also affected ‘18 August’, forcing its inhabitants to move to ‘the platform’, a area of higher ground near the market. Now, earth has been brought and the ground level raised. Once the road that surrounds the community is built, it will become a natural barrier to the fluctuations of the nearby rivers.
The town lacks proper sewer and drainage systems. When the rain comes, waste matter runs freely on the streets with the water and mud. “Some houses had latrines, but very basic ones, and as soon as the water rose, all the dirt overflowed,” says Mirna Guzman, health promoter and member of the community.
When neighbourhood associations, the local council and the Bolivian Red Cross conducted an assessment of the needs of the community, the inhabitants were in no doubt: getting rid of this residual water would inevitably mean less illness for their children, especially the gastrointestinal, dermatological and respiratory diseases that are the main health problems in the region.
That is why it was decided to construct latrines for their houses.
“Everyone has built theirs. Three facilitators taught us how to build them. It took five days. They gave us the materials and they told us how to construct them with drawings,” Densi Roca, who has had a latrine in her house for a year, explains. There are high rates of illiteracy here, and Red Cross volunteers must always look for an alternative.
Mario Temo, a neighbour, proudly shows us his latrine, which he has painted orange. It has a solid door - the only one in his house – and wooden steps. “It is for our children and it is important for them to see the things done well. This is going to last a long time.”
Until recently, a latrine meant a simple hole in the ground. Once filled, it was covered over and another one was excavated.
When the new dry fertilizer, non-polluting latrines arrived, the settlers refused to believe that the disagreeable latrine smell would be banished from their houses. So instead, a more complex model was chosen, even if it implied more time and effort to maintain it.
“The most difficult task is to make them recycle the waste,” indicates Maurer, the local project coordinator. “People were also afraid that they would be charged for the latrines later. They have had bad experiences like that before.”
In addition to the facilitators, there are also 16 visitors supporting the project, whose job it is to follow up the constructions and to reinforce training for the families. “The project has been so successful that besides the 45 latrines constructed at the beginning, at the last community meeting, they asked for material to build another 160,” Maurer says.
“The objective is not simply to have a latrine,” explains Mirna Guzman, “it is to learn how excreta can cause disease if it is not controlled, and to know the importance of cleaning and boiling water. Very simple, but crucial, things.”
In addition to the latrines, a project for equipping the health centre has been developed, based on a medicine rotary fund to assure sustainability. The first medicines were donated by the Red Cross. These are sold at low prices, ensuring access for people on low incomes but allowing the health centre to purchase replacements.
The Federation has been promoting projects like the one in 18 August in the Amazonian basin region since 1998. Their main objective is to improve the life of the most vulnerable, by promoting health awareness, disaster preparedness and improving their environment.
Altogether, more than 65,000 people in 26 communities of the Amazonian regions of Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela, have been benefited from the Amazonico Programme.