Whistle blowers put a stop to open defecation

A procession of children march through a village in Dinajpur demanding an end to open defecation

27 March 2008: Children in Dinajpur district, Bangladesh are blowing the whistle on people who defecate out in the open and threaten to contaminate food and water supplies.

The children have been taking direct action to protect their health ever since Plan introduced Community-Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) to over 200 villages in the district in 2004.

CLTS is a radical approach that helps communities identify sanitation and hygiene problems and puts them in control of doing something about it.

View a video clip of the children in action and learn more about Plan’s CLTS work in Bangladesh (3.8mb | 3 minutes).

Open defecation free

Now processions of children regularly patrol villages and fields on the look out for open defecators. As soon as they spot an offender, the children rush at them, blowing whistles and waving flags.

Together with other community initiatives, the move has helped make all villages within Plan’s target area in the district totally open defecation free.

Caught in the act

“In the last 6 months, we have embarrassed some 250 people around different villages,” said one girl.

“People usually go at sunrise or sunset and we try to stop them by blowing our whistles. They go in bushes,” said another whistle blower.

Plan’s CLTS efforts have not only empowered communities to enforce a ban on open defecation but have also helped them to build hygienic toilets that help prevent the spread of disease.

More than 2,200,000 children around the world die every year as result of diarrhoea caused by poor sanitation.

Plan’s CLTS programme has so far provided more than 1,300,000 people in Bangladesh with access to hygienic toilets.

Learn about Plan’s global work on water and sanitation