MYANMAR: Fighting open defecation one village at a time

submitted by Stuart Leiderman

A woman outside her newly built latrine.  Photo: Lynn Maung/IRIN

YAE OO, 4 May 2012 (IRIN) - The Burmese government declared three villages in western Bago Division open defecation free (ODF), a first in Myanmar, following the first year of a community-led total sanitation (CLTS) effort launched by the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the Ministry of Health.

"This is a major step forward. It proves that communities can discard the practice of open defecation and build latrines on their own initiative," Ramesh Shrestha, the UNICEF country representative in Myanmar, told IRIN.

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Myanmar - Community-Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) - http://www.communityledtotalsanitation.org/country/Myanmar

WHO / UNICEF - Joint Monitoring Programme for Water Supply and Sanitation - Estimates for the use of Improved Sanitation Facilities - Updated March 2012 - Myanmar (10 page .PDF file)

http://www.wssinfo.org/fileadmin/user_upload/resources/MMR_san.pdf