Substantial Presence of human excreta should clearly be the result of recent scattered defecation by a significant number of people. One isolated stool does not constitute a substantial presence.
With the introduction of CLTS through various channels in different countries, Open Defecation Free (ODF) communities have been defined in a wide variety of ways by different NGOs, donors and government structures. This has resulted in problems of aggregating data about CLTS outcomes at any level. A nationally agreed definition of ODF communities (accessible in WASH policies) is necessary, so that verification and certification systems can be based on it and the data from monitoring/verifying ODF outcomes can be aggregated, compared and behaviour across all projects and provinces/districts of the country. Moreover, unless ODF status is clearly and measurably defined in terms of collective behaviour change, monitoring progress to ODF degenerates into simply counting toilets constructed – which may have little or no connection with elimination of open defecation.
Definition “settlement”
A settlement is a colony or any small formal or informal community of people
