This Monday, 25^th June 2018, started in Abidjan, the training of non-sewer sanitation actors on the tools for the optimization of the management of the faecal sludge. This training is an initiative of theAfrican Water Association (AfWA) in collaboration with Office National de l’Assainissement et du Drainage (National Office for Sanitation and Drainage - Côte d’Ivoire).

The theme of this first training day hinged around: “Creation and interpretation of Shit Flow Diagram (SFD)” and was facilitated by Alix LEREBOURS fromthe University of Loughborough in England.

The purpose of the training was to understand the importance of Shit Flow Diagram (SFD) as a decision support tool for sanitation planning. Indeed, SFD is a communication and advocacy tool that allows to "visualize the sanitation problem and operation for a given city". The tool makes it possible to convince decision makers and donors to prioritize actions to be carried out in terms of sanitation. The participants were also trainedon how to generate a diagram using SFD Software. The group work that followed gave participants the opportunity to practice the tool.

It was with great interest that the training was attended by the participants. It gave the opportunity to “discover a relevant tool useful when seeking for funding because it allows to have reliable data on sanitation in a locality and to clearly target the actions to be carried out” according to Mrs. YOKOLI, Director of Rural Sanitation in the Ministry of Construction, Sanitation and Urbanization. As for Ms. SidibéFatoumata from BRL Ingénierie, a consulting firm, “the SFD is an important tool she intends to use in her daily work”.

This first day of training was intended for ONAD experts, technical staff of municipalities, sectoral ministries, NGOs, Consulting firms, researchers operating in the sanitation sector.