Survey And Countermeasures On Sanitary Toilets Building In Rural Liaocheng

BackgroundToilet civilization is an important symbol not only for civilization in rural areas, but also for social civilization of the country. It is also a requisition for social development under the new situation. The construction work of rural sanitary latrines has been promoted in recent years, partly because of people's improved health awareness in rural areas along with high speed of social and economic development, and partly because of the governments at all level'high attention to the work of rebuilding sanitary latrines. Construction of sanitary latrines in rural areas will do great practical significance to the prevention and control of infectious diseases, improve rural living conditions, and to the construction of the new countryside.Objectives:Based on the current situation of new countryside construction work and socio-economic development of Liaocheng, this study made a survey on the construction of sanitary latrines in rural areas of 8 counties (cities, districts) of Liaocheng to well understand the current situation of toilet rebuilding, and to explore the problems in the sanitary latrines rebuilding progress, to analyze the reasons, and finally to put forward the relevant and useful policy options to reach the aim of smooth construction of sanitary latrines in rural Liaocheng.Methods and materials:The research data were from archives of rebuilding sanitary work latrines from 2005-2008 and field survey. A sample of 3,600 rural residents from 72 administrative villages,24 towns,8 counties (cities, districts) were selected by using stratified random sampling method according to social and economic development, rural customs, etc. in Liaocheng, Shandong province. Main contents include basic situation of peasant households, the type of rural latrines and construction status, sources of funds, quality of the toilet, manure treatment and utilization, cognitive evaluation of farmers, management of sanitary latrines, etc. Statistical analyses were carried out with the SPSS software after source data were sorted and checked.Main Results:1) Toilet owning rate for rural sample households is 99.11%, among which 97.64% built outdoors; 2) Sanitary latrines penetration rate is 72.64%, while rate of general sanitary latrines,56.83%, and harmless sanitary latrines, only 15.81%; 3) Among 3568 household toilets, the ones with integral walls or with roofs account for 86.74%,79.54%, respectively, reflecting a bad quality; 4)the ones that were built with impermeable building materials, with sealed manure pit, with walls or windows, account for 75.81%,60.31%,85.09%, respectively, whereas toilets with qualified hardware account for 85.09%, ones with both qualified hardware and inside sanitary conditions, only 60.84%; 5) in most sanitary latrines, fecaluria were diversified.6) the funds for latrine in rural areas invested by country or collectivity were very little, the large part comes from peasant household (58.72% of the total), leaving rural families in burden; as for the quantity of funds, money spent by peasant household, the village community, the governments are 350.73 RMB,90.35 RMB, 30.45 RMB, respectively; with a ratio of 12:3:1.7) as for degree of satisfaction, 80.36% of peasant household are satisfied,15.47%, all the same,3.25%, dissatisfied. 8) as for financial sustainability,40.22% of people say they can bear absolutely, 36.14% can bear basically,15.75% can't bear at all, while 7.89% keep silence.9) some village made a simple sanity management system made up of cadres and village doctor, every people with a clear responsibility.10) Generally, The Patriotic Health Campaign Committee has a small professionals at both prefecture and county levels, the similar situation also existed in CDC.11) Bad propaganda work, poor quality of toilet and unproper use, etc. are also important factors in the process of rebuilding latrine. Conclusions and Recommendations:Rebuilding work of sanitary latrines in rural Liaocheng have achieved progrss to some extent, cadres at all levels and farmers have increased awareness now; the rebuilding work has been more standardized and more scientific; hygienic conditions has been improved significantly; health behavior and consciousness of farmers have enhanced greatly; and penetration rate of sanitary latrines and harmless treatment rate of manure gradually increased in rural areas. At the same time, sanitary latrine rebuilding work in rural areas faces a lot of difficulties:bad construction status of sanitary latrines, low harmless sanitary latrine coverage rate, lack of investment by the government and the collective, lack of propaganda, inadequate supervision and guidance, improper use of sanitary latrines, lack of maintenance knowledge, difficulties in coordination among departments, responsibilities not properly ascertained, and so on. Based on above analysis and discussion, policy options are listed as follows:1) leadership should be further strengthened, policy support, especially financial support should be reinforced; 2) various channels to publicize sanitary latrine rebuilding work, reinforced training to enhance awareness and understanding among cadres and farmers in rural areas should be paid much attention; 3) active and positve coordination among relevant sectors should be strengthened; 4) finally, supervision and technical services by professionals should also be provided to enable villagers to properly use and manage their own sanitary latrines.