1,500 activists have been trained in Pakistan, as part of the Community-Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) campaign, to try and persuade people to stop defecating in the open. The campaign, initiated by the World Bank's Water and Sanitation Program (WSP), is striving to banish open defecation from 564 villages. The main problem is to change the way people think and behave. 'We want people to need a toilet,' says activist Wasim Aslam. 'We don’t just give it to them as they may not necessarily use it. We work on their psychology.'

The campaign has been quite successful. Javed Ali Khan of the Ministry of Environment says that open defecation in rural areas fell from about 74% in 1990 to 45% in 2006. According to the Ministry, 73% of the population now has access to a latrine - 96% in urban areas and 62% in rural areas.

Although the majority of the activists are men, much of their success is due to the women behind them. Irfanullah, a local counsellor in Peshawar, said that had it not been for his wife, he would not have made any headway.

Related news:

• Pakistan, NWFP: municipality offers financial reward for defeating open defecation, Source South Asia, 12 Nov 2008;
• South Asia: 778 million still practice open defecation, safe water use has improved, says new report, Source South Asia, 18 Jul 2008

Web sites: CLTS - Pakistan; WSP; Ministry of Environment

Source: IRIN, 12 Dec 2008

Tags: gender, hygiene promotion, on-site sanitation, south asia