Community-led total sanitation

Community-led total sanitation (CLTS) is a participatory approach used mainly in developing countries to improve sanitation and hygiene practices within a community. CLTS aims to achieve behavior change with a "trigger" that leads to spontaneous and long-term abandonment of open defecation practices, thereby improving community sanitation and overall health. The term "triggering" is central to the CLTS process.[1] It refers to ways of igniting community interest in ending open defecation, usually by building simple toilets such as pit latrines. The effect of CLTS is two-fold: actions that increase self-respect and pride in one's community and actions that promote shame and disgust about one's open defecation behaviors.[2] CLTS takes an approach to rural sanitation that works without hardware subsidies by facilitating communities to acknowledge the problem of open defecation, taking collective action to become "open defecation free," and cleaning up.

The concept was developed around 2000 by Kamal Kar for rural areas in Bangladesh. CLTS became an established approach around 2011. Local governments may reward communities by certifying them with "open defecation free" (ODF) status. The original concept of CLTS purposefully did not include subsidies for toilet installations, as they might hinder the process.[3]

CLTS is practiced in at least 53 countries and has been adapted to the urban context.[2][4] It has also been applied to post-emergency and fragile states settings.[5]

Challenges associated with CLTS include the risk of human rights infringements within communities, low standards for toilets, and concerns about usage rates in the long term. CLTS is, in principle, compatible with a human rights-based approach to sanitation, but there are examples of bad practices in the name of CLTS.[6] Rigorous coaching of CLTS practitioners, government public health staff, and local leaders on issues such as stigma, awareness of social norms, and pre-existing inequalities are important.[6] Disadvantaged people should benefit from CLTS programs as effectively as those who are not disadvantaged.[7]

  1. ^ "The Community-Led Total Sanitation Approach". Sanitation Learning Hub. Retrieved 5 August 2025.
  2. ^ a b Venkataramanan, Vidya; Crocker, Jonathan; Karon, Andrew; Batram, Jamie (2018). "Community-Led Total Sanitation: A Mixed-Methods Systematic Review of Evidence and Its Quality". Environmental Health Perspectives. 026001–1 (2): 026001. Bibcode:2018EnvHP.126b6001V. doi:10.1289/EHP1965. PMC 6066338. PMID 29398655.
  3. ^ Galvin, M (2015). "Talking shit: is Community-Led Total Sanitation a radical and revolutionary approach to sanitation?". Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Water. 2 (1): 9–20. Bibcode:2015WIRWa...2....9G. doi:10.1002/wat2.1055. S2CID 109255503.
  4. ^ Myers, Jamie; Cavill, Sue; Musyoki, Samuel; Pasteur, Katherine; Stevens, Lucy (15 June 2018). Innovations for Urban Sanitation. Practical Action Publishing Ltd. doi:10.3362/9781780447360. ISBN 9781788530170. S2CID 134862963.
  5. ^ Greaves, F. (2016) 'CLTS in Post-Emergency and Fragile States Settings', Frontiers of CLTS: Innovations and Insights 9, Brighton: IDS
  6. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference :0 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  7. ^ House, S., Cavill, S. and Ferron, S. (2017) 'Equality and non-discrimination (EQND) in sanitation programmes at scale', Part 1 of 2, Frontiers of CLTS: Innovations and Insights 10, Brighton: IDS
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