The CLTS Knowledge Hub has changed to The Sanitation Learning Hub and we have a new website https://sanitationlearninghub.org/. Please visit us here - it would be great to stay in contact.
The CLTS Knowledge Hub website is no longer being updated you can access timely, relevant and action-orientated sanitation and hygiene resources and information at the new site.
These last few weeks have been exciting and really busy for me. I have found myself doing a lot of juggling – our WASH Advisor and our CLTS Trainer have moved on from Plan, so I have had to step in and ensure that all the balls remain in the air. This week is the climax for me.
Himbirti is a peri-urban town located 30 km away from Asmara, the capital city of Eritrea. After CLTS was initially introduced by the Ministry of Health in April 2009 in the same way as in rural settings without much success, it became clear that a different approach was needed.
Valerie Sukura, Juliet Mbayaji, Evelyn Savantia and Dennis Baraza are all 13 years old. They are currently in standard 8 at St Michael’s Children’s Education Centre in Mathare. They remember that before Urban CLTS was introduced in the area, they had to defecate openly in the school compound, inches away from their classrooms or even down by the river. They also admit that plenty times they would go to the toilet and run straight to eat without washing their hands. However, urban CLTS triggering sessions transformed their understanding of sanitation and hygiene and has turned them into eager advocates in their homes and communities.
Tabitha Atai is a mother of four who lives in Mathare 10 and used to be a self-employed tailor. When Urban CLTS was introduced in her area she decided to join since her business was not doing well and she was spending most of her time as a housewife. She is now a full-time community health worker and a facilitator of Urban CLTS and says she has been empowered from a mere housewife to a strong community leader, thanks to Urban CLTS.
During the Nanded workshop, we spent the first day sharing our experiences in Nairobi and learning about the work in Nanded. We then split up into groups for field visits. I saw four different areas of Nanded.
India’s population accounts for approximately 1/7th of the world’s population. The Government of India has the immense challenge of governing and providing services for over 1.2 billion people. As we were touching down in Mumbai on the 14th March 2012, and the infamous smell of the city hit our noses, I was reminded of the enormity of the task of governance and service provision for 1/7th of the world.
From the 27th February to the 1st March, the second annual review meeting of the Pan African programme Empowering self-help sanitation of rural and peri-urban communities and schools in Africa
The workshop on urban CLTS in Nanded, Maharashtra, was an occasion with much to learn. It was the first time when urban CLTS experiences had been brought together – from Mathare in Nairobi, Kalyani in West Bengal, and Nanded itself, with its population of a little over half a million. The only other major urban experience of CLTS I know of is Rosso in Mauritania, though I hope my saying this will provoke others into giving other examples, so that soon we will have a wider range of experiences to learn from.
CLTS in cities is relatively new in the Indian context. Prior to Nanded there were only two reported cases of use of CLTS in an urban setting in India- Kalyani near Kolkata and Raigad in Maharashtra. But the Nanded experience is wider than both the earlier initiatives, as this is the first time in India that CLTS has been used on a city wide scale to cover all aspects of sanitation including: open defecation; solid waste management; drainage; water security etc.
