CLTS at a Crossroads: Why Community Energy Needs Technical BackingCommunity-Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) has transformed how villages confront open defecation replacing subsidies with community action, pride, and local innovation. But a growing question is emerging across research and practice: Can communities truly build safe, lasting sanitation facilities without some level of technical support? New evidence suggests that while community-led energy is powerful, it often needs a technical “handrail” to ensure long-term safety, durability, and public health impact.CLTS was designed around a simple but radical belief: people understand their own challenges best, and when motivated, they can drive lasting change without external hardware support. Through pre-triggering visits, triggering walks, and strong follow-up, communities gain the confidence to stop open defecation and build their own toilets using local materials. In many countries, this process has sparked genuine pride, creativity, and a new sense of ownership over sanitation.But evidence from Nigeria, Bangladesh, Ethiopia, India, and Indonesia reveals a recurring challenge: many community-built latrines fall short of the technical standards needed to ensure health and long-term sustainability. Common issues poor ventilation, collapsing pits, inadequate lining, leaking superstructures, and confusion around groundwater safety show that motivation alone isn’t always enough. In some cases, latrines quickly fail, forcing households back to open defecation.Interviews with leading sanitation experts echo the same concern. While everyone agrees on the power of CLTS to spark behavior change, most believe that communities still need light-touch but meaningful technical support whether understanding basic design principles, choosing safe pit locations, or learning how to manage full pits and structural weaknesses. The challenge is providing this guidance without undermining the community-led spirit that makes CLTS so effective.Climate and soil conditions also matter greatly. Areas with high water tables, unstable soils, or heavy rains often require technical input simply to keep toilets standing. Even the most determined community cannot compensate for collapsing pits or flooded superstructures without guidance rooted in engineering and environmental science.What is emerging is not a rejection of CLTS, but a more balanced model:Let communities lead but support them just enough to ensure the latrines they build are safe, hygienic, and durable.Many practitioners now suggest a two-phase approach: ignite demand first, allow communities to innovate, and then offer targeted technical advice that strengthens not replaces their ownership.CLTS remains one of the world’s most powerful behavior change movements in sanitation. But for it to deliver on its promise of health, dignity, and sustainability, technical support should not be viewed as a contradiction. Instead, it may be the missing link that helps communities climb the sanitation ladder safely and confidently.