Accelerating ending open defecation in Afghanistan, Aqcha, Jawzjan province

This 24-month year project is a scale-up of ACTED’s previous CLTS project with UNICEF and aims to declare the population of 200 high open defecation prevalence communities in Aqcha district of Jawzjan province, Open Defecation Free (ODF). The practice of open defecation is strongly correlated with prevalence of stunting and according to the ALCS 2014, and 2013 National Nutrition Survey, seven of the ten highest stunting and open defecation prevalence provinces overlap. Moving people from open defecation to using improved sanitation has a 36 percent impact on the reduction of childhood morbidity of diarrhoeal diseases. In response, ACTED will construct or rehabilitate sanitation facilities for 10 health facilities and 18 schools across Aqcha district, allowing for 94,724 people to gain access to basic sanitation. Alongside this, ACTED will also provide hygiene promotion to communities benefiting from these sanitation facilities.

The extension to this grant will improve on the previous project by declaring an additional 400 communities Open Defecation Free in Jawzjan, Sar-e-Pul and Faryab as well as supporting School and Health centre WASH practices and facilities in Jawzjan, Sar-e-Pul, Faryab and Laghman. A new component will be added to the project in the form of rural water provisions for deprived communities in Faryab, Jawzjan, Sar-e-Pul, Samangan, Balkh, Baghlan, Kunduz, Takhar, Badakhshan, and Laghman based on assessments.