Table 5 Community members’ input on the solutions, roles, and signs of improvement for health and environmental sanitation

Use a biogas oven (converts waste into fuel)

Cleaner roads (no more garbage thrown randomly)

Burn garbage

Everyone gathers household garbage for a garbage collector; identified the need for regulations

Treat excreta to get rid of smell or compost it properly

Economic status is better

Lead by example by making changes and other people will follow if they see changes working

Improved health means we can do anything

Need funding

Reduction in diseases and conditions they perceived to result from poor sanitation (diarrheal diseases, skin diseases, cancer)

Need awareness & understanding

No smell (from garbage, animal carcasses thrown into the river, and the wastewater itself)

Need a clean water system and wastewater treatment system

No wastewater visible (for human exposure)