Synod of Livingstonia development department (SOLDEV) started
implementing community water and sanitation project in Mzimba district in
2002. Ecological sanitation promotes personal hygiene and use of human
manure for fruits and crops production. The research was conducted to assess
awareness, coverage and adoption levels of the ecological sanitation latrines in
Traditional Authority Mzukuzuku in Mzimba District.
The assessment engaged cross-sectional and observatory approaches in the
quantitative paradigm. The structured questionnaire was used to conduct
interviews with the adults in the sampled villages; targeting heads of
households.
Many people; 92.3%, heard about ecological sanitation while 45.6% had
satisfactorily defined ecological sanitation in simple terms. The coverage of
basic sanitation latrines is 58.9% and that of ecological sanitation is 25%.
Furthermore, the results showed that 33% of the households have ever used
compost manure from the human faeces and 76.8% of the household accepts
use of human manure for fruit and crop production.
The results suggest that awareness is not adequate and adoption levels are low. In brief, awareness has to be
improved so that many people have adequate knowledge about ecological sanitation. It is also suggested
that the promoters be added and accessibility to construction materials should be improved for promotion of
coverage and adoption of ecological sanitation latrines in the district. Despite low adoption levels, the project
contributed to introduction of Ecological sanitation latrines and improvement of sanitation standards and
coverage of latrines in the impact communities.