“We have managed to get communities to become empowered and become leaders in the sanitation process”
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© Bolivia/2009/Ruiz-Labrador |
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Kamal Kar in May 2009 in La Paz, during one of the qualification sessions in the Community Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) methodology. |
By Elena Ruiz Labrador
Question: What is the difference between this approach and other sanitation approaches?
Answer: The main difference between Community Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) and others is that the people themselves decide how they are going to clean up their environments. The other alternatives came from outside and tried to do the thinking for them. With this methodology, the people are the ones who make the decisions and become empowered. Now, when you speak of CLTS, it is the ‘total’ and ‘community-led’ that is the focus, since the community works together on sanitation.
Q: What have the worldwide results been?
A: They have been fantastic. For example, UNICEF used to subsidise, but now its global policy is for zero subsidy because it helps communities to become empowered and lead the process themselves. Currently, thirty-two countries are using the method. Although it is difficult to measure, we could safely say that 500,000 to 600,000 communities or villages are now free of open-air defecation.
Q: And since it was started in 1999 have you been able to prove that it is sustainable?
A: Yes – we have been able to show that in countries where it has been in action for over five years they continue using this methodology. Sanitation has improved, and so has health. What we have seen is that of the 100 percent of the communities that start with CLTS, this can drop off to 90 or even 80 percent, but never any less.
Q: Why is it so important to use shame in this methodology?
A: The objective is not to make people feel ashamed. Some think that CLTS is supposed to shame people, but that isn’t so. What it tries to do is help them look at and analyse their sanitation situation from a different perspective.
Q: When you say ‘total’, how important is hand washing?
A: It is definitely linked, because when people begin to do sanitation, they begin to wash their hands, too. Definitely, sanitation has other effects that change people’s behaviour within the community.
Q: What did you find when you first came to Bolivia and what is it like now?
A: My impression is very positive. At first, when CLTS came in, there were a lot of doubts because Bolivia is a country with many remote rural villages, with different ecosystems and cultures. Still, I have seen that they understand the methodology, because there are now 25 open-air defecation free communities.
Q: Here there is a rather large problem with urban sanitation in certain areas. Can CLTS be used in urban areas?
A: There are three cities that are using CLTS with very good results, but it is more difficult. What is needed is political will. However, CLTS was used in Egypt to help people make decisions about their solid wastes and it has worked. Their rubbish, instead of excreta, has been the focus. We have to get working because rural people are migrating to the cities and the problem is only going to get bigger. So we need to start working now, because in ten years we are going to have a terrible sanitation situation in our cities.
