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Country Water Action: Bangladesh
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Whistle blowing is a favorite pastime among children in the villages of Dinajpur district in northern Bangladesh. They would blow their whistles when they spot fellow villagers, often adults, defecating in the open, chasing the surprised offenders who would then pull their pants up and attempt to escape the noise and humiliation. The kids would also stick colorful flags on the ground to mark the offending matter for other people to notice.
These little law enforcers regularly patrol their neighborhoods and nearby fields before daybreak or at dusk, when most people "go" and take advantage of the dark. Within 6 months, they shamed some 250 people from different villages. Besides the whistling and flag-marking, the children also march around villages, chanting slogans against open defecation (OD), sending a direct message to all villagers about the dirty old habit.
The children's involvement in this direct action against OD is part of the Community-Led Total Sanitation (CLTS), "an integrated approach to achieving and sustaining open defecation free status." The children know that their efforts help protect their own and their communities' health, and adults include them in community decision-making.
Now, no adult in Dinajpur dares to do business in the bushes.
Today, OD is still practiced by a staggering 1.2 billion people (about 18% of the world's population), most of them in developing countries' rural areas. This means one in every three people in rural communities still defecate in the open, unaware of potential health risks. In South Asia, OD remains the norm in many rural communities and even in some cities, with some 778 million people still doing it. In fact, the region is home to two-thirds of the world's "open defecators." In Bangladesh, OD is still practiced by some 18 million people every day, placing the country among the top 10 OD-prevalent countries in the world.
Ferdousi, a local government official in Dinajpur, said, "Open defecation is an old habit. It's hundreds of years old. Some people are still not aware, but we are hopeful."
On the other hand, Bangladesh has made some progress in increasing access to improved sanitation, from 26% in 1990 to 36% in 2006, and the government is keen on achieving 100% sanitation by 2010, five years ahead of the Millennium Development Goals target. The government's 2005 National Sanitation Strategy is harmonizing agencies' work, while the country's numerous nongovernment organizations (NGOs) contribute greatly to the sanitation efforts. One such NGO is Plan International, which introduced CLTS in many villages in Dinajpur.
Much of Bangladesh's sanitation problems lie not so much on the lack of facilities or funding, but on people's attitudes and behavior towards hygiene. This makes CLTS an appropriate approach for mobilizing communities.
Designed by social development specialist Dr. Kamal Kar, CLTS was introduced by Plan, an international development agency, to some 200 villages in Dinajpur in 2004. Plan's mission is "to achieve lasting improvements for children living in poverty in developing countries".
CLTS is not about prescribing the right latrine models to communities or telling people up front that their behavior is unhygienic. Dr. Kar explains, "It's rather empowering them to analyze their own environment, and when they realize that they're ingesting each other's shit, they immediately jump into action."
"Nobody wants to stay in that condition and they also realize that they don't want to wait for any outside help or any subsidy to get out of the situation. Collective decisions are made and they stop it the way they want it," Dr. Kar added.
In CLTS, hands-off facilitation is important. The rule of thumb for social development facilitators is to trigger self-realization, and not to lecture. Instant provision of hardware—latrines or toilets—are also discouraged. Villagers have to realize first that the problem is staring at them right in the face. The CLTS approach helps communities recognize that they need such sanitation facilities, that they should mobilize themselves to build their own toilets, and that everyone in the village should contribute to achieve "total sanitation."
And because Plan International's work concerns children, the village youth often play catalytic roles.
Today, most Dinajpur villages have achieved "open defecation free" (ODF) status and, thanks to Plan's efforts, a number of villages in several districts have also adopted the CLTS approach.
The children's campaign is the just the beginning. CLTS allows villagers to generate their own ideas for improvement, take control of development processes and decision-making, and manage and sustain the activities. Often, CLTS has led to improving latrine designs, adopting hygienic practices, managing solid waste and wastewater, protecting drinking water sources, and other environmental activities.
Some villagers, however, can prove to be more difficult than others. Ferdousi said, "Two years to convert everyone is not enough, but we will keep on raising awareness."
Plan now promotes CLTS in other countries in Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. A CLTS Handbook, published in 2008, is also available for social development facilitators.
Note: Photos courtesy of Plan International
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