Internally displaced families in Garowe’s Jowle II camp are calling on aid agencies to renovate latrine facilities in their camp, which they say are in dangerously poor condition.
Hawa Humow Madobe, a mother of four children, was recently injured when a pit latrine collapsed. She fell into the latrine and had to be rescued and by some of her neighbours.
“I knew earlier that the latrine was in poor condition. The elders in the camp warned us not use it, but we continued using it until it collapsed, because we don’t have other latrines to use,” Hawa told Radio Ergo.
Chairman of the camp, Osman Abukar Sheikh, told Radio Ergo that the latrines were poorly built in the first place. He blamed local construction workers for not listening to residents’ advice that the latrines were not well constructed.
Hawa’s husband, Dahir Roble, who is one of the camp elders, called on aid agencies to come to their help and rehabilitate the facilities.
Roble said people have been forced to defecate out in the open due to the poor state of the latrines in the camp, while others were trekking to other camps to use latrines there.
Norwegian Refugee Council constructed the 100 latrines in Jowle II camp last year. They latrines are shared by some 500 families.
