The making and use of toilets in Turkana is spearhead by the county ministry of health under the division of public health through a strategy called Community Led Total Sanitation otherwise abbreviated as CLTS.

According to experts, CLTS is an internationally recognised intervention that works through helping the local communities to recognise their own sanitation status and decide on what to do using local resources from within the environment.

It is therefore a no subsidy approach that has its strongest point in the belief that behaviour change Communication is the key in helping people to know that their health and well being depend on the construction and use of toilets.

When the program started in Turkana, toilet coverage and use was at its lowest, two years down the line more than 150 villages have attained the status of Open Defecation Free (ODF). 

This shows the efforts of the health team and the enthusiasm of locals in embracing the CLTS approach. The show will highlight handwashing which is a component of CLTS as something that locals in Turkana had adopted long before the Covid19 pandemic.

Indeed, sanitation solutions in the ministry of health go beyond the Covid19 problem. They have been there and will continue to be enhanced accordingly.