Cheers to that!

After two months spent in a small, remote village on the east coast, I have now hit tourist central on the west coast south of Colombo. And the first result of this? My worst hangover in living memory! Ugh!!

I'm not sure if it was the fact that I had not been drunk in two months, or if it was due to the extreme heat I've experienced over that time, or a combination of both, but on the morning after my first evening in my first tourist bar I had seen in two months I was the mother of all hangovers. I guess that's what happens when you drink 17 beers!! Yes, 17... well, that's the number that were on my bill, and since my fellow drinker, an English guy named Keith, had 19 on his, I guess it was so.

Oh, plus a few Arak shots! Ugh!!

Okay, let's recap a little... I had arrived back in Colombo from Kallar, and headed to the offices of Impakt Aid. They then sent myself plus another English guy, Julian (who had just arrived from the UK, so a newbie), to meet Keith at a hotel/bar in a town called Bentota about 60km south of Colombo. We were to take a look at the project he was managing, with a view to take over the finishing of it, as well as move onto other locations with the same project. And the project?

When you've gotta go, you've gotta go...

Yep, toilets. Or, to put it in it's technical term, "sanitation".

Yeah, a little different from the shelter project I'd been working over on the east, but let's put a little perspective on it: If you have 50 families (so, roughly 200+ people) living in temporary shelters that have no facilities whatsover, and if they're VERY lucky maybe 4 or 6 public toilets of variable condition nearby, how important would it be then? Yeah, "sanitation" assumes slightly more importance when you put it in perspective.

Unsanitary conditions

Constructing the septic tank

A newly completed 4 toilet system

The design we're using was actually drawn up by a couple of engineers from California, and approved by the Sri Lankan environmental minister, which is something that the toilets being built by the government themselves have not been. It's actually a little scary casting an eye over some of the facilities that have eben built for those living in the various IDP camps, considering most of these people will be living here for 12 months and upwards...