In an effort to make the Mahitsy Commune a cleaner and healthier place, the USAID-funded hygiene improvement project (HIP) has introduced several new concepts to help the commune improve its level of hygiene and sanitation. Such concepts include WASH-(water, sanitation, and hygiene) friendly schools, WASH-friendly community health centers, and the "three P approach"(public private partnership). The project also arranged various training and orientation work-shops for the local community health workers on the three main WASH messages: safe storage and treatment of drinking water, safe feces disposal, and hand washing with soap. The centerpiece and most prominent aspect of this effort is the newly renovated public toilet facility situated in the heart of Mahitsy, between the busy market and the regional bus station. For years, Mahitsy residents and the many visitors to the market have had no public toilet facilities. The commune built its first public toilet with funds from another donor, but the facility was poorly built and poorly managed, resulting in an unsanitary facility that was not heavily used and did not generate any revenue for the commune.
To help address the problem, USAID/HIP offered to renovate the facility and to improve its management through the public-private partnership approach. The commune agreed to meet twenty percent of the renovation costs to expand the facility from four to six toilets, and add two shower booths and one external water tap. Management of the facility was opened tocommunity bidding, and a local scouts' organization—Santatra—which had earlier received a WASH training, was the winner.
Under the arrangement, the scouts agreed to pay the commune the equivalent in local currency of $200 per month, to conduct a long-term study of usage, and to provide WASH training to the local people. Tsilavina, the Manager of the renovated facility, believed this was a win-win arrangement for the scouts' organization. "We are students in management, and managing the facility is for us an opportunity to both serve the community and do a management project for our studies," he said.
The $200 paid by the Santatra represents a considerable monthly income for the commune. With USAID/HIP assistance, the commune has decided to establish a special hygiene and sanitation fund to support other hygiene and sanitation projects in the commune. This includes the maintenance of the existing public toilet facility, and, in the next two years, the construction of new facilities that will serve the needs of the 11,000 users in Mahitsy.
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