Sanitation marketing programs are part of Community-Led Total Sanitation (CLTS), a growing social science–based technique pioneered in Bangladesh in 2000. CLTS creates a demand for improved sanitation—one villager at a time, if necessary—and is successful only when 100 percent of the targeted population has abandoned open defecation.

It shares some tactics with previous efforts, such as creating an ally of a village's leader before approaching the group. But the differences are significant. CLTS teams, which can be outsiders, regional converts or both, use sanitation marketing to render the status quo disgusting. A team might ask residents to create a large map of the village in a clearing and then have everyone pour a bright powder where they relieve themselves. The resulting image shows how much land is despoiled. Another approach is to point out that another local village held in high esteem does not defecate in the open, playing again on feelings of shame as well as aspirational sentiment.

Owning up
Aspirational motives play in the next phase as well, when the team prompts villagers to design latrines that can be built with locally found or purchased materials. If latrines cannot be produced locally, replacements will not be built when the original toilets break down and are abandoned.

Perhaps most counterintuitive is the importance of ownership. "Toilets need owners," says Jack Sim, founder of the World Toilet Organization, an information and advocacy group based in Singapore. Sim, who has been involved in improving sanitation since 1998, is not talking just about conceptual ownership, as in who takes care of a latrine. He and others have found that people should purchase a toilet with their precious money to give it value. "People often revert to open defecation when there is no ownership."

David Winder, CEO of the nonprofit WaterAid America, says that whenever possible, the toilet must bestow status on those using it. Something as seemingly minor as a coat of paint on a latrine's concrete slab encourages its use and care.

The only objective measure of progress in the fight to give everyone on Earth a safe, sanitary and private toilet is the United Nation's Millennium Development Goals, which call for halving the proportion of people living in poverty by 2015. The sanitation goal seeks to halve the proportion of people living without basic toilets by the same year.

The hope is that efforts such as sanitation marketing and the Gates Foundation's challenge will have an impact on sanitation problems worldwide, but the reality of what they face is daunting. "Of the Millennium Goals, sanitation is the one that's most off track," according to Rose George, author of The Big Necessity: The Unmentionable World of Human Waste and Why It Matters, (Metropolitan Books, 2008) which makes the case for universal toilets. Indeed, WaterAid estimates that at the present rate of progress, sub-Saharan Africa will not hit the mark for centuries.*


*Editor's Note (2/21/12): Rose George requested that the wording of her quote be changed to indicate the sanitation portion of the Millennium Goals is the one that is most "off track," as opposed to being the most "out of line," as the quote originally indicated.

12 Comments

1. 1. willfree 10:17 AM 2/21/12

   I saw composting toilets in Ecuador many years ago. Low tech and productive. Many years before that, my father was gardening with a fertilizer derived from the sewage treatment system of the city of Milwaukee. This is a problem with multiple old solutions that simply need to be implemented.

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2. 2. quincykim 11:00 AM 2/21/12

   I'm surprised that composting toilets aren't being looked at as much as high-tech options. They fit the criteria and have a proven track record when used correctly. And they don't require big bucks to research.

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3. 3. TaraMac 11:03 AM 2/21/12

   I'm surprised they didn't mention the PeePoo bag made by Peepoople, a Swedish organization. Cheap and clean and simple.
   http://www.businessmodelinspiration.com/?p=127

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4. 4. rushil2u 11:05 AM 2/21/12

   I'm glad that this issue is being addressed seriously. The lack of awareness about basic sanitation is a serious problem in both rural and urban India.
   
   What we need more than high-tech toilets (better mousetrap anyone?) is education and law enforcement. It isn't only the poor who defecate in our cities and villages.

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5. 5. GiGreen 03:20 PM 2/21/12

   Great article & links. There are many solutions from many organizations. Over educated individuals cannot look outside the boxes they have built yet they are the only ones getting grants? Look around at the world & college educated solutions? The corrupt individuals in government & banker wars are the source of the issues. Love in action is the answer as it promotes individuals to help those in need to grow in hope and actions. Women are raped looking for firewood attempting to stay alive as their families have been destroyed. In America, 1/2 the population is still on septic systems. America cities (90% of US population) are only 15 days away from similar issues if and when our grids go down from solar flares and no one can flush. The sewer systems are poorly designed (by college grads) so that if toilets do not flush the sewer systems will start to explode from methane gases. We invented a home source point sewer treatment process 20 years ago because Americans will be charged in the near future for every flush. WE also worked on a 20 million pig farm and solved the manure problems only to be stopped by "drug" company anti biotic over use. The Gates foundation follows in the questionable footsteps of Mr. Gates father, Rockefeller and the UN. Globally the germ theory and treatment is not doing very well as Louis Pasteur said on his death bed Antoine Bechamp was correct, it is the personal terrain that allows & spreads disease. Since I feel Gates is out in left field concerning facts and he has never ending funds, we will have to sit back and watch the smart people figure out a way to make money and rid the earth of un desirables pooping, or not? Thanks again for all the great information. Gi Green Guru, global consultants.

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6. 6. hcc2009 05:43 PM 2/21/12

   Seems like the culture of maleness once against trumps the needs of women AND the dictates of common sense. The article states that "While women and girls would prefer indoor toilets, 'others' prefer open defecation". Others? Why not say "men and boys"? That's all that's left.
   
   And so ... like many other problems in the developing world ("dry sex", too many children, AIDS) and the developed one as well (warfare, prostitution, child sexual abuse) is primarily males who cause this problem.
   
   To be fair, it is also primarily males (listening to feminine voices, I would argue) who fix most of the problems in the world. So let them get started on this one!

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7. 7. sofistek 06:35 PM 2/21/12

   As others have said, there is no need for a new solution, it already exists, with the composting toilet. Here is one that looks really cheap and easy:
   
   http://youtu.be/3V5f5tFtJMM

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8. 8. Daniel35 01:08 AM 2/22/12

   First let me say that my first six years were on an isolated farm with a primitive outdoor toilet, probably built by my father and in much better shape than the one pictured. The rule was to sprinkle wood ashes on deposits to control the flies. I didn't hear that there was ever a problem with it (except getting to it in wintertime), but I think there are much better ways to do it today.
   
   OF COURSE USE COMPOST TOILETS, but maybe of the design below, and of course use the product for fertilizer.
   
   I once made garbage can from a plastic paint bucket with a 'check valve' made of a plastic grocery bag that would let garbage in but not flies, and no smell out. It worked so well that I let it get almost full, and turned to liquid, till it was hard to empty. This, with an open bottom, should also work for a commode, with the additions below.
   
   My ideal is that underneath the commode (for all kinds of organic waste) would be the upper end of a sloping metal tube (made of large culvert pipe or two or three oil drums welded end to end) on rollers, with door that swings open (inward) when that side of the tube is turned up. Rotate the drum once a day, or so, perhaps by a crank on one of the rollers, in the direction that will cause the input door to swing closed as it rolls. Rolling mixes the waste and moves it slowly toward the lower end, hopefully at a speed that allows for complete digestion. Have the output from the tube go through another "check valve system. Build a funnel-shaped screen around the lower end of the tube that will let flies go in but not out, helping with digestion and adding to the compost. There are probably a lot more details, but I think it may be practical. Write to danrob (at) efn if you need more help or ideas.

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9. 9. sofistek 04:21 AM 2/22/12

   Or use something like the Loveable Loo (in the link from comment 7). A bit more work (once or twice a week) but it can be placed anywhere (inside or outside a home) and apparently doesn't smell. You need a reasonable supply of carbon based material to cover the faeces and urine but I can't see that being too much of a problem.

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10. 10. SpottedMarley 05:59 AM 2/22/12

    I guess then, as the article vaguely suggests, the technology is not the only key issue here but changing the 'hearts and minds' of the 2+ billion who just don't know any better yet.
    
    Education, the ultimate technology.

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11. 11. anumakonda 10:31 AM 2/22/12

    There are composting toilets which are successful in developing countries.
    Composting toilets are toilets systems, which allow to minimise water use and to recycle nutrients contained in excreta and faeces. There are various different systems (i.e. pits or vaults; urine diversion or not; low-tech and high-tech; single-vault continuous or multiple vault batch).
    Composting toilets are suitable for both industrialised and developing countries, especially in arid regions and regions without piped water for sewers. Composting toilets can be constructed at the household level, or they can be built in cluster for institutions, schools, hostels and so on. However, open access community compost toilets are not re.Composting toilets can be built beside or as part of a house in rural, urban or peri-urban areas and can even be established inside a house or apartment .In several projects, composting toilets have also been successfully implemented in houses with several floors with the collecting chamber being situated in the basement . Composting toilets are generally sealed systems; therefore they are also adapted to areas prone to flooding or high water table .Composting toilets are slightly more expensive than urine diversion dehydration toilets in terms of excreta management because of the need for the control of the C/N ration ,but the nutrients contained in the compost from composting toilets are more readily available than those from dehydration toilets .
    
    Advantages
    • Operate reliably during dry (no water required) and wet seasons (in comparison to dehydration toilets)
    • Can reduce the volume of the faecal matter considerably (up to 30 %,)
    • Can reduce the volume of solid waste, as organic waste can be added to the toilet
    • No need to dig pits (in the case of vault composting toilet) or to install sewers
    • Urine can be collected separately
    • End product (humanure) is a valuable soil amendment
    • Low-cost and high-cost versions are available
    • Can be built and repaired with locally available material, If leachate is controlled, composting toilets can also be constructed where the groundwater table is high or on bedrocks.
    Dr.A.Jagadeesh Nellore (AP),India
    E-mail: anumakonda.jagadeesh@gmail.com
    
    
    

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12. 12. igmarreypacheco@gmail.com 03:38 PM 2/24/12

    Estamos ad-portas de un cambio de paradigma. Debemos de dejar de ver a las excretas humanas como residuos y verlas como un recurso. La orina es una gran fuente de fósforo y un excelente biofertilizante natural a través de un sencillo proceso. Posee un buen equilibrio entre nitrógeno, fosforo y potasio. La excreta a través de un proceso de compostaje, que asegure la muerte de los patógenos, puede ser un excelente reestructurador de suelos. Las tecnologías actuales utilizan el agua potable solo como medio de transporte de las excretas de un lugar a otro. Debemos de dejar de verter las excretas humanas a los ecosistemas acuáticos para incorporarlas a los ecosistemas terrestres. Quizás debamos mirar como lo hacen otras especies…

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