Communities Thrilled with NSSP Community Consultation

THE Communities Across Rannogah Island in Western Province have been impressed and excited with the recent Community implementation of the Solomon Islands National Sanitation Sustainability Plan (NSSP) 2nd phase Program.

The Community implementation took place across 12 Villages in Rannogah Island from 15th, 16th, 17th and 20th of November 2023.

Community Consultation was held at Villages in South Rannogah namely Ngaikene ,Ngaidavala, Visale, Keara, Saevatoa, Tuti, Suvuru and Kundu.And villages in North Rannogah are Mondo,Keigold, Sabala and Buri including some nearby communities.

The community implementation has gathered widespread support from these communities as it aimed to mobilize communities, scout for village volunteers to represent them and inform communities about the work of ADRA on how to implement the NSSP sanitation program down to rural communities across the island.

NSSP was funded by UNICEF and implemented by ADRA Solomon Islands at Vela La Vela,Kolobangara and Rannogah Island. The NSSP 2nd phase program commenced on September 11, 2023, and will end on September 10, 2024.

NSSP Project Coordinator for Rannogah Island, Jason Boso said, approximately 20 to 30 people normally attended this community consultation from these respective communities.

“I would like to confirm that the turnout of people attending this community consultation was very encouraging and impressive seeing the community participation during the consultation.”

‘’All villages we went to and organized this community consultation were very happy and excited about this sanitation program,’’Mr Boso said.

Mr Boso confirmed that after the community consultation ended, they were able to identify some potential volunteers from these communities to work with ADRA to implement this project.

“After these community consultations, we were able to identify some of the potential volunteers that’ll work closely with us to implement this project.”

“The consultation has allowed every one of us for an open dialogue, allowing community members to voice their opinions, concerns, and suggestions regarding this program. All these communities were prepared to work closely with us to start rolling this project across these two wards in the island,’’Mr Boso said.

The NSSP is an implementation plan to scale-up delivery of sustainable sanitation services at provincial and national level, as well as to improve hygiene behaviors in the communities.

It cantered on a community engagement approach that uses Community-Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) as an entry point, complementing it with post-ODF follow-up visits, sanitation marketing and communication techniques to raise awareness and eventually enable changes in social norms regarding Open Defecation to arrive at sustainable sanitation in the community.

This program will further be partnering with the Education Authorities, Local Community Based Organizations, MHMS-RWASH and provincial government in Western province to establish a strong foundation in the target area and provincial authorities to ensure the sustainability of the NSSP program in Western Province.