Ground water pollution resulting from the open defecation practices is a societal issue that commonly experienced especially in the rural communities where there is a lack of proper toileting facilities mainly at a household level. The members of the Itoinimarawa Community have been experiencing serious health-related problems associated with poor ground water contamination due to the presence of e.coli and other water borne pathogens which is a result of open defecation practices in the area. Children and even all other members of the community suffered the consequences as well as it provokes ecosystem and environmental challenges.
Despite the above, people are also facing issues and problems that are resulting from the consumption of poor and unbalanced diet. Apparently, high dependency on imported food items which are always of poor nutritive value are responsible for many health and diet related sicknesses. Members of Itioinimarawa community lack the financial capacity to procure for agricultural implements to support the cultivation of their own food in the field. Coupled to this factor, people also lack the requisite knowledge and skills to manage the soil to enhance growing crops to supplement their diet.
The limited socioeconomic livelihood alternative opportunities in the rural societies placed a compounding pressure on the above identified dilemma. Members of Teitoinimarawa community like other members of the rural society dwell and rely on copra as their main source of income. Conversely, copra on the other hand is becoming a scarce resource due to the higher competition between families who share the same familial right to access to this family-owned resource. The increase in copra price accelerates such competition which eventuate the fast depletion of this resource.
The wellbeing of people living in this community is also affected by losing the opportunity to consume and feed on land crabs that are available abundantly on the island. Women and the vulnerable social groups felt the impact more profoundly than the rest of other social groups. This issue links and correlate to the contamination pressure open defecation placed on the environment and the land food resources.
The project aims to improve health of members of Itoi Ni Marawa Incorpprated Society by improving the quality of ground water through an improved sanitation facilities and increased the consumption of locally grown food through promoting household composting and gardening activities.