Eau, assainissement et hygiène

Assainissement

© UNICEF/Bolivia/2007

A home-built latrine constructed through the community-led total sanitation initiative in Bolivia.

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While gains were made in sanitation coverage over the last 15 years, some regions and countries are not on track to meet the MDG sanitation target by 2015. It is now clear that new approaches are necessary to sustainably increase coverage levels.

UNICEF is increasingly emphasizing sanitation, expanding its own programmes of support in countries around the world and advocating for an increased focus on sanitation by governments and funding partners. The focus of UNICEF support is to help develop improved programming models and to provide support to government partners for taking successful models to scale. This approach involves significant work at the field level while engaging governments and other stakeholders at national level. UNICEF is also active in the development of improved sanitation technology: developing and promoting latrines and toilets that are affordable but also satisfy criteria for safety, effectiveness, sustainability, environmental impact and child-friendliness.

One new model for sanitation promotion is showing considerable promise. Called "total sanitation" (TS) or "community-led total sanitation" (CLTS), the approach stresses the elimination of the practice of open defecation in communities. CLTS/TS initiatives encourage community self-analysis of existing defecation patterns and threats, and promotes predominantly local solutions to reduce and ultimately eliminate the practice of open defecation. Instead of focusing on latrine construction as a goal, CLTS/TS helps communities and individuals understand the health risks of open defecation and use disgust as a "trigger" to promote action, which ultimately lead to the locally-built low-cost household latrines. The ultimate goal of CLTS/TS are communities that achieve and maintain "open defecation-free" status.

The CLTS/TS approach has been especially successful in Bangladesh and India, both of which are set to exceed MDG targets for sanitation. The model is also being introduced with successful results in Bolivia, Cambodia, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Nigeria and other countries.