The life-cycle services approach for sustained sanitation

Published on: 10/07/2012

A major weakness of toilet construction programmes is their limited impact on sustained sanitary behaviour:

• toilets are installed, but users do not complete the structure so that it can be and is used;
• toilets are completed, but users do not use them and they fall into decay
• toilets are completed, but they are not durable, and on decay/collapse users return to open defecation
• toilets are completed, but are not sanitary in construction or use, e.g. flies can still enter pits
• toilets are completed and in use, but users use them for other purposes than excreta disposal
• toilets are completed and in use for excreta disposal, but household members still practice open defecation
• toilets are completed and used, but the use is unhygienic so the toilets help spread disease

Construction of a toilet does not necessarily mean toilet use. Data on what happens when pits and tanks get full are much rarer. Most programmes end with the construction and sometimes with confirmation of use and hygiene. However, there are indications that a large amount of human excreta are stored only temporarily in a toilet. In the end, the untreated excreta still end up in the environment. The latrines and toilets serve only as temporary storage. ODF (Open Defecation Free status) still ends in open defecation in a concentrated form, when after achieving the ODF, emptied toilet content still ends up as raw human excreta in the environment. Without safe pit/tank emptying ODF ends in “concentrated open defecation”.

Links to materials referred to in the article providing more background information:

• construction of a toilet
• beyond construction toilet use
• storage of human excreta