20 November 2009
“Before long it becomes shockingly apparent that the whole village is currently being used as one big toilet.”
The DFID-funded Cambodian pilot of the “community-led total sanitation” (CLTS) programme takes a turn away from usual donor practice of funding large-scale toilet design and construction and encourages communities to work together to sort out their own sanitation challenges.
In Kampong Speu Province the villagers of Moha Sang Commune start the process by marking out of their village on the ground using twigs, stones and leaves.
Individually they then each grab a handful of sawdust to mark where they normally go.
Before long it becomes shockingly apparent that the whole village is being used as one big toilet - and the realisation that impromptu toilet sites are so near fresh water sources, livestock and even homes, plays a large part in the programmes educational success.
Designed by the Institute of Development Studies (IDS), the CLTS programme focuses on the behaviour change which is needed for real and sustainable improvements to sanitation.
By encouraging communities to analyse their own sanitation conditions, through participating in the mapping exercise and visiting open defecation sites, groups begin to see the scale of the problem and identify ways that food and water can be contaminated.
Throughout the sessions the organisers deliberately use the crudest of local language to shock, shame and encourage action to create a clean and hygienic environment. The disgust and desire for self-respect that arise during the workshops often induces communities to take immediate, local and affordable action by creating small-scale latrines and stopping open defecation, without waiting for external support.
DFID has been funding the pilot scheme in Cambodia through our Rural Sanitation Programme, run jointly with UNICEF with £1.2 million over three years. Commune by commune CLTS is helping people change habits and clean up their own mess to support Cambodia’s hope to become an “Open Defecation Free” country by 2015.
For more information on CLTS, see http://www.id21.org/rural/r4kk1g1.html