The study was conducted according to the cross-sectional descriptive method. The study subjects consisted of householders who were selected by a systematic random method in 15 comunes under the Community-led Total Sanitation project in 5 provinces including Dien Bien, Ninh Thuan, Kon Tum and Dong Thap, with the sample size of 780. The study results show that: 1) The knowledge of interviewees on sanitary latrines was still limited: Still 17.7 percent of respondents could not name any latrines, especially in Dien Bien. 15 percent of respondents did not know that open defecation would affect health
only around 20 percent of those knew that open defecation would affect air and water sources. 27.4 percent of respondents could not name any diseases as the consequences of direct contact with human feces. 59.6 percent of interviewees did not know or reported that the partially financing support policy for the poor to build latrines was not applied at their localities. 2) Regarding behaviors on using latrines: 80.4 percent of households had latrines, but only 22.7 percent of those were considered as sanitary latrines meeting the standard on construction, 18.1 percent of those meeting both two standards on construction and usage, maintenance according to the Decision No.08/2005lQD-BYT, this was found the highest in Dong Thap (59.6 percent) and the lowest in Kon Tum (8.8 percent). Among the households without latrines, 73.9 percent of those were used to urinate and defecate in gardens, forests and fields
8.5 percent did at ponds, rivers and streams
and 19 percent had to use the neighbours' latrines.