Plan UK recently launched a handbook on Community Led Total Sanitation to enable communities analyse their sanitation conditions and collectively understand the impact of open defecation on public health and their environment.
About Community Led Total Sanitation Community-Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) is an approach that focuses on igniting a change in sanitation behaviour through community participation rather than constructing toilets. It does this through a process of social participation. It concentrates on the whole community rather than on individual behaviours and the collective benefit from stopping open defecation can encourage a more cooperative approach. People decide together how they will create a clean and hygienic environment that benefits everyone.
On 12 April students from the capital Thimphu performed dances and skits with the theme “Sanitation Matters” to observe International Sanitation Day/World Water Day. Even though water and sanitation are government priorities and coverage levels have increased, water-related diseases are still among the leading causes of child mortality in Bhutan. The World Food Programme (WFP) is channeling funds to UNICEF for school sanitation. SNV Netherlands Development Organisation plans to implement a Community-Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) programme.
Andrew Deak - 2008
ISBN 1 85864 677 4
48 pages
Price £12.95
IDS Working Papers - 298
When a practice becomes widespread enough, then it has ‘gone to scale’. But increasing the intensity and spread of a particular practice is not a linear or obvious endeavour. The paper proposes that going to scale is multi-dimensional and complex. It focuses on Community-led Total Sanitation (CLTS): an innovation in participatory methodology, as well as a unique approach to sanitation. While CLTS has followed both vertical and horizontal trajectories, with quantitative, political, functional and organisational scaling-up, its general movements are best described as ‘spread and adaptation’. The paper describes how CLTS offers important lessons to understand spread which is critical for scaling up in an effective way. CLTS shows how increased scale entails both wide-scale coverage, with pertinent adaptations to local contexts. The main argument is that spread and adaptation are important aspects of scaling up, which is often neglected in the literature. After a brief overview of CLTS, the paper reviews the literature on scaling-up and extracts the useful points relevant to CLTS, and highlights the gaps in the literature around self-spreading movements. A number of case studies of innovative methods or approaches that have been successfully scaled-up are then considered: PRA, Reflect, Community Integrated Pest Management and System of Rice Intensification. The author then maps out CLTS experience, outlining the various ways in which CLTS has spread. After considering the various forms of spread, the ‘spatial strategy’ employed by CARE Bangladesh is given specific attention. The paper then discusses how CLTS and other participatory approaches challenge dominant thinking around community developing by critically examining the World Bank’s discourse around Community-based/driven development. The final section offers concluding remarks regarding how to better understand scaling-up and spread.
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The publication presents nine case studies from: Indonesia, Vietnam, Vanuatu, Fiji, Timor Leste, Papua New Guinea, Tonga, Tuvalu, Kiribati.
Key improvements related to the case studies:
The WSLIC 2 project in Indonesia used a Community Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) approach which has empowered communities to take collective action to ensure 156,995 people live in villages that are 100% free of open defecation.
Plan in Vietnam introduced locally produced latrines which reduced household toilet cost by almost 55% and enabled poor farmers to safely reuse human fertilizer for their farms.
The World Vision project in Vanuatu increased access to sanitation by 25% and made safe water accessible in seven villages. Access to potable water resulted in better diets in households and increased hygiene practices.
The 3 Delta Towns project in the Mekong Delta, Vietnam used a revolving loan scheme to improve access to household septic tank toilets for 22,500 people.
The SOPAC Sanitation Park in Fiji showcases a range of sanitation technologies. It has become a training site for local villagers, health workers and students.
In a record 42 days from the commencement of WaterAID Australia’s pilot CLTS sanitation program in Timor Leste, total sanitation coverage in five target villages was achieved. The success of the program has resulted in an inter-agency workshop and training programs to promote the CLTS approach.
The ATproject in PNG promoted hygiene among school children and designed and constructed the locally ‘ATloo’ toilets in schools. The positive results of the project sparked a growing interest in the program in other schools and a demand for sanitation in households.
The World Toilet Organization project in Aceh, Indonesia has used a community toilet and biogas technology to help introduce the concept ecological sanitation whilst restoring normalcy to communities affected by the 2004 Asian Tsunami.
Ecological sanitation training workshops for communities in the Pacific Islands provided theoretical knowledge and practical skills for the participants, which they passed on to their home island communities in Kiribati, Tuvalu, Vanuatu, and Tonga.
Pedi, D. (ed.) (2008). Sharing experiences : sustainable sanitation in Southeast Asia and the Pacific. Mitcham, VIC, Australia, WaterAid Australia and Brisbane, QLD, Australia, International WaterCentre. 64 p. Download here.
On 5 March 2008 the Resource Centre Network Nepal (RCNN) launched the CLTS Toolkit booklet during the Symposium on ‘Sanitation Approaches and Technologies in Nepal’.
The booklet focuses on Community-Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) practices and awareness raising to be used by facilitators in the communities.
Below is an update on the conference programme. Several side events and workshops are focus on sanitation. Delegates will receive the Conference Proceedings and a CD of Sanitation Publications by WEDC, WSSCC, IWA and UNICEF.
Side events:
fresh thinking on urban sanitation planning (IWA/WEDC)
national capacity development in support of Community Led Total sanitation (UNICEF/WEDC)
sustainable approaches for large scale implementation of sanitation in Africa (NETSSAF)
Workshops:
innovations in demand and leakage management (SWITCH International Research School for Urban Water Management)
Community Led Total Sanitation – scaling up in Ghana (IRC)
Special interest sessions and panel discussions:
post-disaster water supply,
demand management for sustainable urban water services
The School-Led Total Sanitation project was piloted by UNICEF in Pakistan-administered Kashmir in mid-2007. Drawing from experience gathered by UNICEF and its partners, the programme initiates change by developing useful health and hygiene skills in school to encourage life-long positive habits.
“With this approach, we use teachers and children as entry points into the communities,” explains UNICEF Water and Sanitation Officer Victor Kinyanjui. “The idea is that children replicate sanitation and hygiene practices learnt at school into their families, and also advocate for the use of latrines. Teachers are also real opinion leaders, as they are educated and respected. People listen to them.
In the International Year of Sanitation, Earth Report travels to Bangladesh to discover changing attitudes to hygiene. No more ‘open defecation’: instead of top-down solutions, the new Community-Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) approach has eradicated open defecation in more than 300 villages. Earth Report investigates. The programme features CLTS guru Kamal Kar. Read the transcript and view a movie clip here.
Clean Living’ is broadcast on BBC World at the following times (all times quoted as UK time zone currently GMT):
Friday 14th March - 20:30, with repeats at 10:30 on Monday 17th March, 15:30 on Tuesday 18th, and 02:30 and 08:30 on Wednesday 19th.
Clean Living was produced with the help of the Department for International Development - Environment, Water & Sanitation, UN Water, UNICEF - Water, Environment and Sanitation, and the Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council (WSSCC).
Kamal Kar also appears in the Plan International video “Bangladesh Community Led Total Sanitation”. In 2004, Plan introduced CLTS in over 200 villages in the Dinajpur District of Bangladesh. By 2007, all villages in Plan’s target area had eliminated open defecation and the entire population now has access to hygienic latrines. The video highlights the crucial role of children and women in CLTS campaigns.
News and Resources for 2008 International Year of Sanitation
Maintained by the IRC International Water and Sanitation Centre, USAID’s Environmental Health knowledge management activity and the Hygiene Improvement Project.
