Innocent K. Tumwebaze

Opportunities and limits to market-driven sanitation services: evidence from urban informal settlements in East Africa

The improvement of sanitation conditions in slums(1) is difficult in part because of economic and institutional environments that often prevent private or public investment in infrastructure. This analysis of sanitation conditions in informal settlements in Nairobi and Kampala compares user practices. It also identifies the main actors involved in the provision of overlapping sanitation systems, involving a multitude of small-scale providers, along with the challenges these present. The paper goes on to describe a new market-based approach in Nairobi, developed by a social enterprise, Sanergy, which is responsible for the construction of facilities and the collection and treatment of wastes. The system improves user satisfaction, community wellbeing and environmental quality, pointing to a clear opportunity for such market-based interventions where a customer base already pays for sub-standard services. There remain challenges, however, around the ability to scale up and finance these providers, especially in complex operating environments that increase transactional costs for companies.

Ecological sanitation coverage and factors affecting its uptake in Kabale municipality, western Uganda

Ecological sanitation (Ecosan) is a relatively new concept being promoted in many developing countries to improve sanitation coverage and recycle nutrients in excreta for agricultural production. We conducted a cross-sectional study in Kabale municipality, western Uganda to determine the coverage of Ecosan and factors affecting its uptake. A total of 806 respondents were interviewed, randomly selected from 32 of 77 (42%) villages in Kabale municipality. We held six focus group discussions and 10 key informant interviews. Ecosan coverage was found to be 20% (163/806). The factors that were significantly associated with Ecosan coverage included education, occupation, religion and age. Our study found a relatively high Ecosan coverage in Kabale municipality compared to the targeted national coverage of 15% by 2018. Policy-makers and organizations in Ecosan development ought to take into consideration the influence of education and socio-economic factors for successful uptake of ecological sanitation.

Shared toilet users’ collective cleaning and determinant factors in Kampala slums, Uganda

BackgroundDirty shared toilets are a health risk to users in urban slum settlements. For health and non-health benefits among users of shared toilets to be guaranteed, their cleanliness is important. The objective of this study was to investigate the cleanliness situation of shared toilets in Kampala’s slums and the psychological and social dilemma factors influencing users’ cleaning behaviour and commitment by using the risks, attitudes, norms, ability and self-regulation (RANAS) model and factors derived from the social dilemma theory.MethodsWe conducted a cross-sectional study in three slums of Kampala between December 2012 and January 2013. Data were collected from 424 household respondents that were primarily using shared toilets. Semi-structured questionnaires administered through face-to-face interviews were used in data collection. Linear regression was done for the multivariate analysis to test for the association between respondent cleaning behaviour and a combination of RANAS and social dilemma predictors.ResultsOut of 424 respondents interviewed, 44.3% reported cleaning the shared toilet daily, 34.4% cleaned once or several times a week, 1.4% cleaned every second week, 5.4% cleaned once or several times a month and 14.4% did not participate in cleaning. The main RANAS factors significantly associated with respondents’ cleaning behaviour were: attitudinal affective belief associated with cleaning a shared toilet (β = −0.13, P = 0.00) and self-regulating factors, such as coping planning (β = 0.42, P = 0.00), commitment (β = 0.24, P = 0.00), and remembering (β = 0.10, P = 0.01). For social dilemma factors, only the social motive factor was statistically significant (β = 0.15, P = 0.00). The R square for the linear model on factors influencing cleaning behaviour was 0.77 and R square for factors influencing cleaning commitment was 0.70.ConclusionThe RANAS factors provide a more robust understanding of shared toilet users’ cleaning behaviour than social dilemma factors. Self-regulating factors and changing the negative affective cleaning feelings are shown to be very important for interventions to increase shared toilet users’ collective participation in their cleaning. In addition to RANAS, social dilemma factors have an important influence on slum residents’ commitment to clean their shared toilets.

Inclusion of shared sanitation in urban sanitation coverage? Evidence from Ghana and Uganda

This paper discusses the notions of ‘improved’ and ‘unimproved’ sanitation in the context of developing countries in urbanizing Africa and considers the role that shared facilities can play in this equation. It analyses current definitions and classifications used by the United Nations Joint Monitoring Programme (JMP) to monitor access to shared sanitation and summarizes the recent discourse on JMPs limitations. Empirical evidence from two case studies in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) - Kampala, Uganda and Ashaiman, Ghana - is presented, showing the widespread use and limitations of the shared toilet facilities in these two cities. The empirical evidence shows that quite different types of shared sanitation facilities emerge in different cities, each influenced by the urbanization patterns, local politics and sociocultural considerations. Improving the quality of shared facilities involves the consideration of the applicability of the different types of facilities within the category ‘shared sanitation’, toge...