Prioritising sanitation: fair links villagers and suppliers

Thousands of people gathered at the DoendupCholling Lhakhang Temple, in Dangchu gewog, Wangduephodrang district, dressed in their best attire, cheerful and snap-happy, holding their latest Samsung smart phones.

This was a very common sight during the three-day Dangchu Tshechu Festival (15-17 February 2016), a sacred and auspicious festival that takes place only once every three years.

To capitalise on the gathering, a rural sanitation fair was organised for three days, having as theme: “More people have access to costly phones than toilets. Get your priorities right, invest in a toilet for better hygiene and a healthy life!”

The fair turned out to be a success, giving people access to information and affordable sanitation products and services, and resulting in the immediate sale of all products brought by suppliers. In addition, it also created good linkages between households/gewog officials and suppliers in order to ensure future supply of materials and services to the gewog. Free health check-ups were provided and BCC messages were shared with the general public to reinforce the sanitation messages communicated during a series of workshops held in December 2015.

The event was organised by the Public Health Engineering Division (PHED), the Ministry of Health and Dangchu Geog Administration, Wangduphodrang District, with technical assistance from SNV and financial support from Australian Aid and UNICEF.

Check out more news on the event, covered by Kuensel and Bhutan Broadcasting Service.