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Water and sanitation

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Plan helps thousands of children to access safe water

Plan works with communities to improve access to safe drinking water and to raise awareness of the importance of waste management.

More than 2,200,000 children die every year - that is 4 every minute - as a result of diarrhoea caused by poor sanitation and hygiene.

Every year Plan helps communities build 2,000 school latrines and in the last 3 years has helped families and communities build an average 100,000 toilets per year, benefiting several million people.

We also provide water points in communities and schools, especially in rural areas, and establish community-based organisations to ensure the continued management and maintenance of water points.

Radical approach

Billions of people lack access to basic sanitation and are forced to defecate out in the open, contaminating food and water supplies.

In Asia and East and Southern Africa, Plan is pioneering a radical new approach - Community-Led Total Sanitation (CLTS), which educates communities about the importance of sanitation and helps them to construct and maintain their own latrines. They also gain the confidence to enforce a total ban on open defecation.

Learn more about Plan’s Community-Led Total Sanitation programme.

Case studies

Ethiopian communities take the lead in ending open defecation

Ethiopian communities take the lead in ending open defecation

A community-led approach to ending open defecation in Shebedino Wereda, Ethiopia, has seen sanitation figures soar.

Solar powered pumps improve lives in Tanzania

Solar powered pumps improve lives in Tanzania

Plan has installed a new solar powered water system in Ifakara, Tanzania - helping to make long queues for water a thing of the past.


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