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An estimated 2.4 billion people lack access to improved sanitation,
most of whom live in developing regions; the lowest coverage is
in sub-Saharan Africa and Southern Asia (JMP, 2015). Eliminating
open defecation is an important target under Sustainable
Development Goal No 6. Community LedTotal Sanitation (CLTS) is
an approach that empowers local communities to eradicate open
defecation and to build and use latrines. It was developed as a
response to failed top-down development approaches – merely
providing toilets or subsidies to build them did not guarantee
their use or result in improved hygiene and sanitation (Kar and
Pasteur, 2005). The CLTS approach focuses heavily on behavioural
change, working to trigger a collective desire to change practices.
The approach has spread to more than 70 countries across Asia,
Africa and Latin America.
Open defecation In the Hindu Kush Himalayan region remains an
important source of pollution for some of Asia’s major rivers. The
Kailash Sacred Landscape is an area shared between the Tibetan
Autonomous Region of China, the Indian state of Uttarakhand
and the far western region of Nepal. The area attracts pilgrims
of the Buddhist, Hindu, Jain, Sikh and Tibetan Bön faiths, who
come on pilgrimages around Mount Kailash. The area is also the
headwaters of four of Asia’smajor rivers: the Indus, Sutlej, Karnali and
Brahmaputra (Shrestha et al., 2015). However, unmanaged tourism
in the area has resulted in inadequate waste disposal and sanitation,
open defecation near sacred sites, unplanned and unattractive
development, water pollution from ritual bathing in sacred lakes
and adverse impacts on Ramsar wetlands (ICIMOD, 2015 and 2016).
The International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development
(ICIMOD) has been working in the region to implement the CLTS
approach within its overall landscape approach (Kailash Sacred
CASE STUDY
Landscape Conservation and Development Initiative). Efforts in
the Indian part of the Kailash have focused on eliminating open
defecation in the forest community of Van Rajis. A one-year
awareness-raising programme has resulted in the construction of
89 concrete toilets in all Van Raji villages. Nine Van Raji villages are
on track to be declared Open Defecation Free by December 2016.
Encouraged by the success of CLTS, the district administration has
initiated plans to replicate the process in neighbouring villages.
In the Tibetan Autonomous Region CLTS has led to reduced
incidences of open defecation in Huor and Darchen townships
near Mt Kailash, through training of trainers and on the ground
implementation support to local communities. On the Nepalese
side of Kailash, the Humla district administration has adopted
a CLTS approach to promote sanitation. The district is gearing
up to an Open Defecation Free celebration in 2017. CLTS has
helped to share best practices and transboundary knowledge
to enhance sanitation and environmental protection in the
Kailash landscape. Through a landscape approach, the initiative
has been able to engage a broad perspective of stakeholders
such as policymakers, practitioners, public agencies and local
communities on this and other issues affecting this region.
Reducing open defecation in the Kailash Sacred Landscape, Hindu
Kush Himalayas
Mount Kailash.
Photo
©
iStock/birdigol
Himalayan toilet hut.
Photo
©
iStock/Paul Scotland