Community-based approach to ending public defecation in Nigeria

In Nigerian villages people often defecate in surrounding grasslands. Faeces is stepped on by people, animals or flies and transported back into homes. It gets into food and is washed into water sources, spreading disease. Participatory processes can encourage local communities in Nigeria to improve sanitation and hygiene practices.

The Community-Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) approach supports aparticipatory process of encouraging local communities to improve theirsanitation situation. It was pioneered in Bangladesh and is being used in fourstates of Nigeria to shock communities into abandoning unhygienic practices.

A report from WaterAid, a Britishnon-governmental organisation, assesses the second phase of a pilot CLTSprogramme in Nigeria, which started in 2006.WaterAid Nigeria realised that even when developmentorganisations intervene to subsidise latrine buildingor provide hygiene education, when the money and support finish, people are usuallyunable or unmotivated to continue improvements and often return to opendefecation. The primary strategy of CLTS is to inspire and empower localcommunities to stop open defecation through collective action, withoutproviding a subsidy.

When WaterAidand its partners pilot CLTS in a community, they initiate frank discussionsabout ‘shit’ and toilets, working with villagers to quantify the extent ofexcrement scattered about. They aim to provoke a sense of disgust and resolveto end practices which, in effect, mean villagers are ingesting each others’faeces.

Researchon CLTS impact in 13 communities showed:

• a significant reduction inthe extent of open defecation: some communities have formally declared ‘opendefecation-free’ status
• a reduction in cases of skininfections, diarrhoea and vomiting, particularly amongst children
• a ten-fold increase in thenumber of latrines: using local materials, half the communities now have nearlyuniversal access to safe toilets
• women’s dignity is protectedand risks of assault and snakebites en route to and from the bush are reduced
• an increase in hand washing after defecation and before eating
• some previously thin villagers have gained weight.

Community members feel the programme is theirs, are committed to itssustainability and have developed methods to raise funds to ensure waterpoints, latrines and washing facilities are maintained. Both domestic andpublic spaces are much cleaner. Those interviewed expressed pride in being able to bring about positiveimprovements in hygiene and sanitation and reported feeling empowered. CLTSapproaches are now being replicated in neighbouring communities without theneed for external support – although villagers do want outside support toconstruct water points.

Researchers noted that theeffectiveness of CLTS varied, depending on conditions. These need to be takeninto consideration when introducing the initiative elsewhere:

• CLTS is more effective in communities where it is the onlyapproach to promoting hygiene and sanitation: it is harder to implement inplaces where latrine subsidies – or free latrine slabs – have been previouslyoffered.
• It works best in smaller communities in which avillage water and sanitation committee is established and a water point rehabilitatedor established.
• It is less effective in more urbanised communities, whichinclude tenant populations.
• CLTS facilitators have to be trained in andcomfortable with a range of Participatory Rapid Appraisal tools, includingtransect walks, social mapping and faecal calculation.