A major weakness of toilet construction programmes is their limited impact on sustained sanitary behaviour.
Published on: 10/07/2012
A major weakness of toilet construction programmes is their limited impact on sustained sanitary behaviour:
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”.