Water Aid Liberia, Partners End Validation W’ship

By: Washington Tumay Watson –onewash9 (@gmail.com

MONROVIA-WaterAid Liberia and stakeholders have ended a one day validation workshop on the manual for installation and management of Bio-Digester Tiger Worm Toilet.

The workshop brought   together participants from the Government Ministries and Agencies with in the WASH sector including cities corporations, Civil Societies, and local organizations as well as the media.

Speaking Tuesday, April 5, 2022   during the closing of the validation, Water Aid Liberia Country Director   Chuchu Selma has urged the participants to view the document as the entire sanitation frame work for Liberia.

According to him, the country has  the open defecation road map , that  focused  on latrine, in schools and communities, stressing  that Water Aid  is also looking at different options  in the improvement  of Water Sanitation and hygiene across  the country.

Selma further said   the manual for installation and management of Bio-Digester Tiger Worm Toilet is one of the improvement instruments.

“This is important  because it took lots of  times, some of you were part of it from  the initial stage,  there were visitation  in Ghana  learning on the development on what kind of technology  we wanted  to introduce   and we went  to selecting  the tiger worm toilet”, he said.

Selma was impressed with the participants who were validating the manual”, one good thing to say everybody in the room is all local experts in the area of WASH”.

He further said  they are not dependent on foreign  knowledge or leadership  indicating  that despite Water Aid  is an international organization, emphasizing  that it requires  them  to do what  they are doing in  that sector.

“We can start from this point as we started, when we called on other international partners to show them on what we have done, that will serve as a key motivational factor, which the leadership of the country is in the driving seat”, he noted.

Water Aid Liberia Country Director said the project to have such document is for the country and not for Water Aid stressing that they are only facilitating   the process that will achieve the manual for installation and management of Bio-Digester Tiger Worm Toilet.

According to him, the manual should be led by the WASH –Commission and own by the Government of Liberia.

He said the manual should be part of the entire framework document for sanitation for Liberia among others.

Also speaking during the opening of the workshop the consultant at the Monrovia City Corporation James Brown said the manual will help those users of the tiger worm facilities.

According to him, if a person builds the tiger worm toilet without the user’s manual, that individual will not be able to use the facility properly.

He said with the involvement of policymakers, technicians and also the community residents that are in the best direction.

Brown said they believed that once the document is developed and finalized, it will help the sector.

He further expressed gratitude to Water Aid Liberia for the support given for the availability of the manual.

Also Speaking was Momo Freeman, an Engineer at the Ministry of Public Works   who also extolled Water Aid for including the Ministry in all of its projects on WASH.

He committed that   the Ministry of Public Works will continue to work with partners including Water Aid to improve the WASH sector.

At the same time, Sanitation Manager   at the WASH-Commission Francis Carmo describes sanitation as key challenge in the society, mostly Liberia.

According  to him, with  the involvement   of Water Aid  including their contribution,  will help  to change  those challenges  that  the country  is faced with  in the sanitation sector.

New Republic Liberia

Alphonso Toweh

Has been in the profession for over twenty years. He has worked for many international media outlets  including: West Africa Magazine, Africa Week Magazine, African Observer and  did occasional reporting for CNN, BBC World Service, Sunday Times, NPR, Radio Deutchewells, Radio Netherlands. He is the current correspondent for Reuters 
 He holds first  MA with honors in International  Relations and a  candidate for second master in International Peace studies and Conflict  Resolution from the University of Liberia.