Kevin Costner once said “if you build it, they will come.” What does he know? He was just a lowly corn farmer. Field of Dreams references aside, these words don’t always ring true.

We know that sanitation is incredibly important to human dignity and development. Alright, so let’s follow Mr. Costner’s advice (or at least the advice of his iconic character) and build a bunch of latrines in areas that don’t have access to toilets! This would solve all our problems, right? Well….actually, maybe not. Here’s why.

First, let’s look at the good part of this idea. Investing in sanitation is vital to development efforts around the world. The world needs investment from lawmakers in their own countries and around the world. By the way, many governments are looking at cutting funding, but more on that in a minute (spoiler: you can help).

India’s push for better sanitation and Modi’s “Toilets Before Temples” motto is a huge step in the right direction. Ah, yes, if only the world’s struggles were easily overcome by a catchy motto and and some pocket change.

Here’s where the Field of Dreams advice collapses. Open defecation, especially in India, has become as much a social norm as a necessity. Sometimes, small communities build their interactions around these social norms. In other cases, communities use the toilets without knowing how to repair them when they break.

Enter ONE Drop, a Montreal-based NGO and one of the 2015 winners of the United Nation’s “Water For Life” Best Practices Award. Their investment in water and sanitation created about 55,000 ripples in a small rural area in India...because they did things a little differently.

In case you can’t read French (the website of the hyperlink above doesn’t have an English option), let me explain further. ONE Drop chose the state of Odisha because it is one of the poorest in India and almost 40% of the population doesn’t have access to water.

Their approach is pretty different from anything I’ve seen before, and that’s probably how they got the UN’s attention. They have 3 tenants, or ABCs:

Accès (Access): This one is pretty similar among all organizations working on this issue. Let’s provide sanitation tools to places that need them (ok, we can call this the Field of Dreams approach-you can build it, but then the next two tenants encourage them to come).

Bénéfices (Benefits): Source solutions from the community

Comportements (Behaviors): Use “social art” to change the culture around sanitation and mobilize the community to create a movement.

Let’s focus on the last two. ONE Drop focuses on making sure that their developments are sustainable and applicable wherever they operate, but this focus was especially important in India because of failures in the past. ONE Drop has operated its program in Odisha for four years so far. It’s ABC’s make sure that once it leaves, the community will remain healthy.

Better yet, it does it in a fun, exciting way. What else would you call making a Bollywood film about your sanitation efforts? Nice.

It’s always refreshing to see water and sanitation approached in fun ways, especially if they change the world more effectively.

ONE Drop is fun, but many organizations like them would be forced to stop doing most of the amazing things they do without funding from world governments.Be sure to take action on this page to make sure that innovative and effective programs like this can continue, and good sanitation practices become the norm for everyone.

Editorial

Defeat Poverty

Why culture is important in sanitation

By Erin Weber