Sanitation is a community-wide issue. If just one household in a community does not have access to safe sanitation, disease can spread and the whole community can suffer. Community-led total sanitation is an approach that encourages local communities to consider the impact that lack of sanitation has on their health. As a result, communities take action to ensure that 100 per cent of the households have access to sanitation and use it.
Many sanitation programmes are unsustainable because the technologies that are chosen are not appropriate. This edition of Footsteps looks at two methods of identifying technologies that are socially, technologically and financially appropriate. Sustainable sanitation improvements also depend on accompanying improvements in access to water and hygiene education.
