Experiencias en saneamiento rural en El Paraguay

Abstract

Adverse environmental conditions affect the economic, social, and health development of the population. Economically, they keep an important portion of the population from reaching the productive stage of their life and thus deprive them of the opportunity to begin repaying the investment they represent. Socially, such conditions give rise to pessimistic or passive attitudes toward what might otherwise have led them to improve their living standard. And from the viewpoint of health, conditions of this nature are known to be the basic cause of the diseases that most endanger the human potential of a country: the diarrheal and hookworm diseases, to cite but a few

A review of the situation regarding water supplies shows that the first water supply system in the country is now under construction; almost all of the existing supplies are individual, and 50 per cent have facilities within the house, the majority of them on the basis of bored wells. As regards excreta disposal, the beneficial effects of the two campaigns against hookworm disease undertaken in 1924 and 1952 are clearly evident, since 88 per cent of the homes have some kind of disposal system, chiefly latrines. However, such sustems are in need of improvement

This situation has endured until now owing to the inadequate resources assigned for sanitation on the part of both the state and the community, and to the inbalance in the ... (AU)