Open defecation is the technical term used by public health officials to describe the problem of not having sanitary toilets. It’s a problem because feces spread disease and illness, particularly of the kind that harm children. Ending open defecation takes a community wide efforts to educate people on the links between sanitation and disease, and also finding technical solutions to creating a decent toilet from locally sourced materials.
UNICEF offers some insights into the process by showing how one local carpenter in Nigeria is changing his community.