The United Nations International Children Emergency Fund (UNICEF) has advocated Community- Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) approach to scale up sanitation activities in order to meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in the sector by 2015.

CLTS is an integrated approach toward achieving and sustaining Open Defaecation Free (ODF) status.

UNICEF’s Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) Specialist, Mr Bisi Agberemi, made the recommendation in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja.

Agberemi said UNICEF had piloted several sanitation models and “ now we can conveniently say some models are more successful than others.

 “Although with the CLTS concept or premise, it is allowed for each of the states to adjust its plans in terms of culture and norms.

 “The approach is very good to scale up sanitation target in Nigeria, especially for rural sanitation.  We are 100 per cent sure that it can work because it is working well in some states in the country,’’ he said.

He said apart from CLTS, a social market approach could also help to increase sanitation coverage, adding that the approach could be integrated within the CLTS approach.

 The specialist explained that the social market “is an approach around a social sanitation centre where a local private entrepreneur will be involved in sanitation marketing which involves production of toilet slabs.”   

He said the approach would be successful if the communities had been motivated, but if demand was not created, there would not be any need for social marketing.

 He, however, urged sanitation officials to replicate the models in their various states and domesticate the water and sanitation strategies to modify the gap created in  meeting  the targets.

 “We have to put passion in the issue of WASH because if we must scale up the activities, it is not a matter of one agency but a collaboration of agencies because each and every stakeholder has a role to play.

 “ For those at the local government level, you should work as a team; work with state agencies to get technical support in order to get enough resource to carry out our task.

 “ The International Year of Sanitation and National Year Sanitation have come and gone, all you need to do is to modify those action plans in your  various area to scale up the targets in the country,’’ he advised stakeholders.