Community led total sanitation

Over 2008/09, WaterAid completed a multi-country research study exploring sustainability and equity aspects of community led sanitation initiatives (Community led total sanitation, CLTS).

Villagers put flags by sites of open defecation in a village in Nepal.

Credit: WaterAid / ENPHO

The purpose of the study was to contribute to the global understanding of community-wide open defecation-free approaches, with a focus on the extent to which these approaches result in sustained and equitable improvements in sanitation behaviour. The study tested the hypothesis that:

"Achieving Open Defecation Free (ODF) Status is a necessary but not sufficient condition for the entire community to use and maintain hygienic latrines in the long-term."

The research was carried out over 2008 and 2009 in Bangladesh, Nepal and Nigeria, the three country programmes of WaterAid that have the most experience in using CLTS. It was managed by WaterAid's Programme Effectiveness Unit, and led by Barbara Evans, an independent sanitation consultant. Research in the three countries was carried out by WaterAid teams and led by external research consultants (Bangladesh; Jeremy Colin, Nigeria; Andy Robinson and Nepal; Hazel Jones).

WaterAid and its partners work with individuals and families in their communities throughout all projects, find out more on our community participation page.

Research design

The design of the research was based on detailed discussions with a number of stakeholders within the WASH (water, sanitation, hygiene) sector who implement or research CLTS in their own programmes. Partners includeded the Institute of Development Studies (IDS), World Vision, WEDC and Plan International. The research is a model for inter-country and cross-regional learning and the close involvement of external stakeholders in research design and dissemination. Such stakeholder involvement ensured that the research was not duplicating research efforts in the wider sector, thus contributing credible evidence to the wider sector body of knowledge on CLTS.

Research findings

The study confirmed that in many of the communities that have declared themselves ODF a very large majority of households have ceased to openly defecate. It became clear that this condition is not sufficient to achieve long-term hygienic latrine use. The study suggests several factors which may contribute to relatively more effective, equitable and sustained outcomes in some cases:

• well-defined communities which represent meaningful units for the effective elimination of open defecation;
• absence of distinct cultural groups with significantly differing lifestyles from the majority (i.e. semi nomadic Fulani communities as found in Nigeria);
• well-developed market for supply of sanitation goods and services and/or
  experience of technical innovation in sanitation (as, for example, in Bangladesh in general) which reduces costs of latrines; and
• a system of follow up and support to households for management and upgrading, and to communities for joint decision-making and dispute resolution

In communities that achieved and maintained ODF status (or close to it) the approach was extremely cost effective – even in the two country programmes where support costs were relatively high (Nepal and Nigeria) due to the small scale of the programme.

A map of Akkelpur, Bangladesh, created by the villagers shows houses, ponds, water points and sites of open defecation.

Credit: WaterAid / Juthika Howlader

Research dissemination and future

The findings of the study have been shared at SACOSAN in Delhi in November 2008, the IDS International Conference in December 2008 and were also presented at the WEDC International Conference in May 2009. The research has been generally well received.

WaterAid has been complimented on both the quality of the research, the process of serious analysis and the critique of its own work. Options to follow up the research will be explored by WaterAid's Programme Effectiveness Unit and it is hoped that the research methodology will be reviewed and applied to future work on this and other issues in the WASH sector.

Read more about Community led total sanitation in WaterAid's Bangladesh country programme in Sanitation is go! 

Sustainability and equity aspects of total sanitation programmes – Global synthesis report ( PDF 400KB)

Sustainability and equity aspects of total sanitation programmes – Bangladesh 
( PDF 533KB)

Sustainability and equity aspects of total sanitation programmes – Nepal ( PDF 2MB) 

Sustainability and equity aspects of total sanitation programmes – Nigeria ( PDF 693KB)