Who Is Involved?
From the domestic dwelling through to the collection and disposal of waste exist sanitation services - these make up the sanitation systems in a specific locality and different actors are involved in their provision, or lack of. For O'Keefe et al (2015, 423), sanitation services necessitate the 'payment of money for the provision of a technology or waste related service'. Market driven sanitation is an approach that is increasingly being pushed because of the recognition that people are already paying for these services and this can create 'mutual benefit for users and providers of the system' (O'Keefe et al, 2015: 428) as a more reliable source of funds to draw on.
Urban areas in many sub-Saharan African cities, typically run by multiple actors, are left with a 'complex patchwork of provision systems, which do not align to form a coherent and sustainable sanitation system' (O'Keefe et al (2015, 422). These players act on different scales and according to varying arrangements, ultimately rendering the provision of basic services complex and inefficient. Due to the persistent lack of publicly funded sanitation services, the majority of the urban poor have adapted and created ways in which they can be more self-sustainable, this includes paying water vendors and constructing their own facilities for sanitation. More recently, new players such as the Bill and Melinda Gate's Foundation have entered into this sector and pushed for 'the development of affordable sanitation technologies through the creation of a sustainable business model' (O'Keefe et al (2015, 424).
Locally Operated Business - Grassroots Approach
With increasingly global environmental consciousness, bottom-up development projects are largely designed with sustainability at their core. Sanergy is a perfect example of an eco-sanitation approach - providing a solution to the urban sanitation challenge and doing so in non-harmful ways to the environment. By nature of Sanergy's design, this is a successfully implemented sanitation system that goes beyond the simple toilet. Its inventors have produced the FreshLife Toilet, a piece of appropriate technology that 'collects waste daily, in a hygienic manner and converts it into high-value byproducts' such as fertiliser (Anonymous, 2012: 17)*. The company have erected hundreds of Sanergy toilets within some of Nairobi's informal settlements and 'this high density of toilets allows for lower costs of waste transportation' (O'Keefe: 2015, 432) and in turn, lower emissions. O'Keefe et al evaluate Sanergy's success and notes that users of their technology 'are more content than users of other facilities, especially with the greater possibility of handwashing' (2015, 16).
Community Led Total Sanitation - Participatory Approach
This is an example of non-subsidised community-based participatory approaches to sanitation. Through this approach, local and international NGOs often work in partnership and aim to eliminate the over-reliance on subsidies is significant if communities are to have increased agency, ownership and sustainability. Through this approach, according to the CLTS website, 'communities are facilitated to conduct their own appraisal and analysis of open defecation and take their own action to become open defecation free' (CTLS). During community meetings, facilitators (healthcare workers, local trained community members) pay visits to villages and impart specialist knowledge and bring awareness of pervading sanitation issues. Subsequently, they go on to 'perform follow-up visits to villages to generate a community-wide effort', this is to inspire the collective desire to end open defecation that causes issues such as malnutrition, child stunting, and high death rates (Crocker et al: 2017, 1076). This program adopts a stance that encourages behavioural-change which is an effective strategy in that it tackles ways of thinking, which can introduce a new culture of hygiene and sanitary practices - a long term strategy.
Top-Down Approach
This approach is defined by the provision of services by public or private agencies through centralised planning and implementation (IRC). Top-down led sanitation includes strategies such as policy-making, increased political commitments, external funding of large schemes. The role of multilateral development organisations and donor agencies in regard to setting sanitation agendas must be emphasised (SEI). Mara: 2018, 166 puts forward the notion that in order to attain the target of the SDGS, top-down approaches may in fact be more appropriate, 'providing the local water and sanitation provider interacts meaningfully with its low-income customers'. Demonstrating its effectiveness if conducted properly, but the barriers to this are rife - corruption, mismanagement and low prioritisation, and a lack of finances all remain hindrances to solving the sanitation problem in Africa.
*Anonymous (2012) 'Gathering waste and making good use of it', Appropriate Technology, 39(4), 17-18.
Urban areas in many sub-Saharan African cities, typically run by multiple actors, are left with a 'complex patchwork of provision systems, which do not align to form a coherent and sustainable sanitation system' (O'Keefe et al (2015, 422). These players act on different scales and according to varying arrangements, ultimately rendering the provision of basic services complex and inefficient. Due to the persistent lack of publicly funded sanitation services, the majority of the urban poor have adapted and created ways in which they can be more self-sustainable, this includes paying water vendors and constructing their own facilities for sanitation. More recently, new players such as the Bill and Melinda Gate's Foundation have entered into this sector and pushed for 'the development of affordable sanitation technologies through the creation of a sustainable business model' (O'Keefe et al (2015, 424).
Locally Operated Business - Grassroots Approach
With increasingly global environmental consciousness, bottom-up development projects are largely designed with sustainability at their core. Sanergy is a perfect example of an eco-sanitation approach - providing a solution to the urban sanitation challenge and doing so in non-harmful ways to the environment. By nature of Sanergy's design, this is a successfully implemented sanitation system that goes beyond the simple toilet. Its inventors have produced the FreshLife Toilet, a piece of appropriate technology that 'collects waste daily, in a hygienic manner and converts it into high-value byproducts' such as fertiliser (Anonymous, 2012: 17)*. The company have erected hundreds of Sanergy toilets within some of Nairobi's informal settlements and 'this high density of toilets allows for lower costs of waste transportation' (O'Keefe: 2015, 432) and in turn, lower emissions. O'Keefe et al evaluate Sanergy's success and notes that users of their technology 'are more content than users of other facilities, especially with the greater possibility of handwashing' (2015, 16).
Community Led Total Sanitation - Participatory Approach
This is an example of non-subsidised community-based participatory approaches to sanitation. Through this approach, local and international NGOs often work in partnership and aim to eliminate the over-reliance on subsidies is significant if communities are to have increased agency, ownership and sustainability. Through this approach, according to the CLTS website, 'communities are facilitated to conduct their own appraisal and analysis of open defecation and take their own action to become open defecation free' (CTLS). During community meetings, facilitators (healthcare workers, local trained community members) pay visits to villages and impart specialist knowledge and bring awareness of pervading sanitation issues. Subsequently, they go on to 'perform follow-up visits to villages to generate a community-wide effort', this is to inspire the collective desire to end open defecation that causes issues such as malnutrition, child stunting, and high death rates (Crocker et al: 2017, 1076). This program adopts a stance that encourages behavioural-change which is an effective strategy in that it tackles ways of thinking, which can introduce a new culture of hygiene and sanitary practices - a long term strategy.
Top-Down Approach
This approach is defined by the provision of services by public or private agencies through centralised planning and implementation (IRC). Top-down led sanitation includes strategies such as policy-making, increased political commitments, external funding of large schemes. The role of multilateral development organisations and donor agencies in regard to setting sanitation agendas must be emphasised (SEI). Mara: 2018, 166 puts forward the notion that in order to attain the target of the SDGS, top-down approaches may in fact be more appropriate, 'providing the local water and sanitation provider interacts meaningfully with its low-income customers'. Demonstrating its effectiveness if conducted properly, but the barriers to this are rife - corruption, mismanagement and low prioritisation, and a lack of finances all remain hindrances to solving the sanitation problem in Africa.
*Anonymous (2012) 'Gathering waste and making good use of it', Appropriate Technology, 39(4), 17-18.
Interesting blog post. I like how you laid out both a community-led approach as well as a top-down one. What do you think is the most effective way to tackle sanitation issues in Africa?
ReplyDeleteThank you Caroline. Some may not agree with me but I think that a more grassroots, bottom-up approach is the most effective in terms of appropriateness and sustainability to tackle a lack of adequate sanitation - slowly but surely it is proving to be the best solution.
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