Faecal sludge in Accra, Ghana: problems of urban provision

Urban on-site sanitation services present challenges for emptying, transporting, disposing and treating faecal waste. Transfer stations can be used by household-level emptiers to safely dispose of faecal sludge, but they rarely exist. Accra‟s use of transfer stations has provided an opportunity to research their functioning, as part of broader faecal sludge management arrangements. The paper discusses the benefits offered by use of transfer stations, as well as reasons currently limiting their operation. While costs associated with operating and emptying these stations are passed to householders, an illegal sector thrives offering lower cost emptying services, typically with disposal of faecal sludge directly into the environment. At present, bucket latrines offer sanitation services to low-income households unable to afford higher service levels, such as septic tanks. The local government aims to phase-out all bucket latrines by 2010, but affordable alternatives have not been found. Where limited access to land inhibits investment in permanent facilities, families may abandon household sanitation altogether. The paper concludes that correct use of transfer stations can provide improvements for existing faecal sludge management and reduce indiscriminate dumping. They must be made available to all workers, through effective public-private arrangements for ownership and operation

Urban sanitation: where to next?

This paper sets the current research-related innovations in urban sanitation of low to middle income countries within a broader historic context. It highlights the key threads of urban sanitation discourse over the past four decades; from putting the last first, to a more nuanced understanding of household demand and uptake, and a focus on faecal sludge management (FSM). Particularly since 2008 the International Year of Sanitation, there has been increasing specialisation around the sanitation value chain and FSM, producing deeper knowledge and several diagnostic / decision support tools. Whist the sector has, in no doubt, made great progress, the paper suggests that there is a risk of (over)simplification. Now is the time, armed with a better understanding and decision support tools, to embrace urban complexity; to place sanitation back into the wider human-technology-environment systems of the city; and to plan for integrated basic services in the domestic and peri-domestic domains

Achieving sustainable sanitation chains through better informed and more systematic improvements: lessons from multi-city research in Sub-Saharan Africa

This paper presents the synthesised findings of the SPLASH Urban Sanitation research programme through the framework of the sanitation service chain. Urban sanitation service chains are complex and fragmented, involving a multiplicity of service providers and typically resulting in unsustainable or inadequate services. The aggregate data set covers a wide range of research methods including; household surveys, a randomised control trial, a willingness to pay survey prototype testing of technologies, focus group discussions and deliberative forums. Thorough the research, it has been possible to identify situations where incremental improvements are being made with varying degrees of success. Most importantly, it has identified weaknesses to the sanitation service chains where progress is either slow or extremely limited. It is through these weaknesses that key questions affecting the long term sustainability of sanitation service chains need to be answered

Emergency sanitation: developing criteria for pit latrine lining

Pit latrine linings for emergency sanitation facilities require different performance criteria from those for pits used in longer-term development work. Various international initiatives are currently under way to develop new methods of supporting the pits used for latrines in emergencies, but before a solution can be found, the problem needs to be defined. Current field guidance lacks the level of detail required by humanitarian workers to construct durable pits in a timely manner. Consultations with international humanitarian field staff and UK-based geotechnical engineers were used in this research project to identify design, construction, and operational requirements of emergency pit-lining systems. However, rather than closely defined performance requirements, the study identified a wide range of criteria that need to be considered and clear distinctions between emergency and longer-term solutions. Latrines constructed in the initial stages of emergencies are likely to be communal, with long rectangular pits that require frequent emptying. Current knowledge of suitable pit support methods is sufficient to provide a limited range of standard designs that could be selected to meet local requirements

Sanitation - a neglected essential service in the unregulated urban expansion of Ashaiman, Ghana

In Ghana, over 70% of urban dwellers do not have private sanitation facilities in their home and rely instead on an informal network of shared toilets. Using results from house surveys, sanitary surveys of toilets and their observed use, this paper explores how the different type of toilets are distributed and utilized in three neighbourhoods of Ashaiman, a rapidly growing city in southern Ghana. The study reveals how and why access to sanitation facilities is influenced by the process of urban development, the distribution of the population and local urban planning policies. Differences in sanitation provision from one area of Ashaiman to another are not limited to the number and location of toilets, but also different levels of service and user fees, that impact on the daily lives of thousands of urban residents. Findings of the study indicate that provision of new sanitation facilities, individual or shared, must consider the motives of implementers, the needs and preferences of the residents and the broader urban context, where patterns of urban development play a critical role

Fecal sludge management: diagnostics for service delivery in urban areas - report of a FSM study in Hawassa, Ethiopia

This report summarizes the main findings of a case study on fecal sludge management in Hawassa,Ethiopia. The specific objectives of the study were: to provide quantitative and qualitative data on the sanitation situation in Hawassa from a socio-economic perspective, specifically as it relates to FSM; to do the above in such a way that the data is representative of the city as a whole but also providing a separate picture of the situation in low-income areas, primarily through qualitative means in the Hawassa case; to provide initial recommendations to guide discussions around future interventions in the sanitation sector in Hawassa, by contributing credible data and analysis; and to inform the development of analytical tools and guidelines, by road-testing draft tools using primary data collection

Towards improved labour standards for construction of minor works in low income countries

Purpose of the paper: The construction industry is one of the largest employment providers in the developing world. It is also one of the least safe industries, with a high frequency of accidents resulting in financial losses, injuries, disabilities and deaths. Decent working conditions and resulting improved worker satisfaction are key to sustainable productivity in the industry. International standards safeguarding construction workers are abundant and ratified by most low-income countries. Are these standards adequately reflected in contracts for construction works? If not, how can contract clauses be improved and operationalised? Design/methodology/approach: Based on research undertaken in Ghana, India and Zambia from 2000 to 2003, this paper explores the aforementioned questions. The paper comprises of analysis of contract clauses from the International Federation of Consulting Engineers (FIDIC) and developing country contracts, along with cases study findings. Findings: This paper finds that more legislation is not the urgent issue; incorporating existing legislation into construction contracts and making clauses operational is a priority. This paper identifies practical and cost-effective procedures for bringing stakeholders together to implement and monitor labour standards, with the aim of contributing to the overall goal of providing “decent work” for all workers in the construction industry. Original/value of the paper: This paper explores issues around implementing labour standards in construction of minor infrastructure works in low income countries and concludes with suggestions on how best to operationalise contract clauses through a process approach

Rural sanitation in Southern Africa: A focus on institutions and actors

Water, sanitation and hygiene are essential for achieving all the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and hence for contributing to global poverty eradication (Global Water Partnership, 2000). This thematic paper contributes to the learning process on scaling up poverty reduction by describing and analyzing three programmes in rural sanitation in Africa: the national rural sanitation sector reform in Zimbabwe, the national sanitation programme in South Africa and the national sanitation programme in Lesotho. These three programmes have achieved, or have the potential to achieve, development results at a national scale exceeding the average rates of progress for Sub-Saharan Africa. The lessons from these programmes are useful for other people around the world. None of them is perfect, but they all demonstrate good work at a large scale. Although water supply, sanitation and hygiene promotion should be considered as one interlinked sector it is increasingly recognized that where programmes or projects are touted as Water and Sanitation (WatSan) very little is done in terms of sanitation improvement and the bias is always to provide water supply hardware. Whilst improved water supply may reduce the incidence of faecal-oral diseases, other transmission routes require intervention through sanitation and hygiene promotion. Sanitation and hygiene promotion create demand for improved facilities. This is important because in some communities people may be satisfied with current sanitation practices, albeit unhygienic, or they may be unfamiliar with alternatives. Access to safe drinking water and sanitary means of human excreta disposal is regarded as a universal need and key to human development (UNICEF, 2004). Sanitation services are critical to poverty reduction, growth and the achievement of the MDGs. It is estimated that investment must double from the current USD15 billion to USD 30 billion annually to achieve the MDG 7 for the sanitation sector

Fecal sludge management: diagnostics for service delivery in urban areas - case study in Dhaka, Bangladesh

This report summarises the main findings of a case study on fecal sludge management in Dhaka, Bangladesh. There are five city case studies as part of this project (Balikpapan, Dhaka, Freetown, Lima and Santa Cruz). The specific objectives of the Dhaka study were: to provide quantitative and qualitative data on the sanitation situation in Dhaka from a socio-economic perspective, specifically as it relates to FSM; to do the above in such a way that the data is representative of the city as a whole but also providing a separate picture of the situation in slums (especially the slum areas of Mirpur and Uttara where a World Bank-supported project is underway); to provide initial recommendations to guide discussions around future interventions in the sanitation sector in Dhaka, by contributing credible data and analysis; and to inform the development of analytical tools and guidelines for using them, by road-testing draft tools using primary data collection

Emerging categories of urban shared sanitation

With 2.6 billion people without access to improved sanitation facilities and with a growing urban population globally, shared sanitation in the form of public or community latrines is a pragmatic way of increasing coverage, but it is currently not deemed 'improved'. This paper explores the variety of facilities that currently exist in order to identify what would enable some of these latrines to be classed as acceptable and to ensure that future shared sanitation facilities meet minimum standards. The categories mostly relate to issues of ownership, management, location and finance rather than technological considerations. An extensive literature review reveals that the users' perspective of acceptability is largely absent from current discussions