Despite climate change being a major concern for the sanitation sector, rural sanitation remains neglected in the wider discussions of climate impacts on WASH services. Also, the voices of vulnerable individuals, households, and communities who are experiencing the effects of climate change in relation to sanitation issues are missing.
This Sanitation Learning Hub brief presents learnings from a practitioner’s experience of integrating climate risk considerations into a Community-Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) programme. The interventions were piloted across three districts of Savannakhet province with a focus on villages that have frequently experienced heavy rainfall and flooding in the past. The learning brief is intended to provide inspiration and ideas to WASH experts and practitioners with interest in integrating considerations of climate change into rural sanitation programming.
Recommendations:
- Think about timing and logical sequencing when integrating consideration of climate risk into programming, and be careful not to shift away from sanitation too much.
- Only conduct climate risk activities in areas where they are relevant.
- Provide training on climate resilience to many government stakeholders at once for greater efficiency, sharing, and learning
opportunities. - Ensure inclusive participation.
- Integrate climate risk considerations from the beginning, don’t think of it as an add-on aspect.
- Climate change adaptation need not be viewed as a cumbersome, additional task for rural sanitation programming.
A French translation is also available via the OpenDocs link to the right and here: Intégrer les risques climatiques dans la programmation de l’assainissement rural en RDP lao
