Community-Led Total Sanitation Project



With financial support from UNICEF, NFDHR has been implementing the CLTS project in two districts of Alsawd and Alsaudah, Amran governorate targeting 135 villages with an objective to improve hygiene behaviors, rural sanitation and access to clean drinking water through community based initiatives.

The project was designed with an intensive approach that ensures all people in the targeted villages, including the decision makers at the districts level, community leaders, men, women, youth, and children are directly involved in and benefited from the project.


The project main components implemented and had the following results:

Pre-intervention assessments:
three types of assessments were done:
  • - Pre-CLTS baseline study that gave a clear picture of sanitation and hygiene practices at households› level in the targeted 135 villages.
  • - Technical assessment for water resources at the 135 villages.
  • - Capacity assessment for the community based organizations (CBOs) that will support the CLTS activities in some targeted villages.

Capacity building: the project has trained 375 natural community leaders, active youth and women and, 150 staff members and volunteers in the local CBOs from the two districts on the CLTS approach and hygiene promotion.

Community Led Total Sanitation (CLTS): The CLTS approach in its four stages was implemented in all 135 targeted villages within the two districts (Set up and preparation, triggering, follow up of the action plans and declaration of the villages as Open Defecation Free (ODF).

The project is linking ODF result of each village as a condition for implementing the other WASH interventions in the targeted villages (the minor rehabilitation of the water sources), which leads to integrated results.

Minor rehabilitation of Water points: The project is currently rehabilitating water points and sources in 20 ODF declared villages. This intervention is going to be implemented in at least 81 villages by August 2015.

The rehabilitation work was identified based on the technical studies conducted by the project›s public health engineers.

Hygiene Promotion: In the ODF declared villages, communities will be sensitized on basic information and knowledge about hygienic practices, and community representatives and natural leaders trained on CLT approach are encouraged to promote the use of latrines to keep the village ODF and also to follow the hygienic practices e.g. hand washing.

Success story:
Safe Sanitation in Galed Village, Amran Among the 135 targeted villages, Galed village consists of 112 families located in a rocky mountain in Bani Talk, Al sawd district, Amran governorate. In December 2014, CLTS project team were not sure if it were possible to implement the CLTS approach in this village as it is difficult to achieve the objective of the project which is to make it an open defecation free village.

The CLTS team assumed that people would find it difficult to initiate digging of pits and build latrines with no financial support especially that the village is located on top of a mountainous and rocky place. However, the people in the village asked the team to conduct triggering in their village, which is an intensive behavior change activity where all village members, including women and children, are exposed to awareness messages on the importance of sanitation and how to ensure it is safe for all people, and the risks of not having latrines and covered pits and not using them. During the first follow up visit to the village, the team, surprisingly, found that all people in the village are working on their innovative sanitation system, where they planned and designed one sanitation system for all families within the village. This innovative, modern and safe sanitation system was implemented with no financial support, although it is more than 1,500 meters long through the rocky mountains covered through well prepared rocky tunnel with a plastic pipe inside and covered with longitudinal rocks to protect it from any breakage. The pipe and tunnel end in a shared covered pit outside the village.