“Welcome — You are entering Jombe village, Turatea sub-district, Jeneponto district, preparing to be a faeces-free zone,” reads the yellow banner above the gate to Jombe village in South Sulawesi.

Visitors cannot miss the banner, which paradoxically seems to welcome them while at the same time admitting Jombe is not yet free from public feces — or ‘mines’ as the locals call the droppings. “We call it that because if you are not careful, you might step on [the faeces]. Many people here still defecate in fields, rivers or right on the sidewalks,” Baso Padewakang, the head of Jombe village, told the Jakarta Globe recently.

Located about 90 km from the provincial capital Makassar, Jombe is a small village where officials at the local health office must continuously encourage people to stop defecating publicly. And it’s not just Jombe — neighbouring villages also face the same problem. People go to their fields at the back of their houses or to nearby rivers to defecate.

Of the 113 villages in Jeneponto district that are home to more than 85 670 families, only 11 have been declared free of open defecation since 2010. But the local government is working hard to get more villages to adopt better toilet habits.

Authorities are currently eyeing 14 villages, including Jombe and other villages such as North Empoang, Camba-Camba, and Tuju.

Source: thejakartaglobe.com