In Durban, South Africa, the municipality is developing a small contractor development-cum-franchise model for manual pit emptying: sub-contractors will employ teams of locally-resident wage labourers who (in sharp contrast with Kibera's manual pit emptiers) enjoy the protection of the law, and who work in daylight with long-handled shovels, heavy gloves and gumboots, transferring pit waste into drums and from there to specially modified waste skips, where it is screened before being disposed of safely.
The Durban model is premised on growing a pool of service providers able to address the city's pit-emptying needs, while creating jobs. Emphasis is placed on close liaison with local ward structures and councillors to set up project liaison committees manage interactions with residents and recruit labourers. Given the fact that the programme is funded fully by the municipality, and that the service providers are contracted, this case study raises important questions about the nature of partnerships and the distinction between partnerships and contractual arrangements. The franchising arrangement does however offer an interesting glimpse of how output based approaches could assist in providing sanitation services to low-income areas.
Please see this 1-page overview of the case study and this BPD paper that compares manual pit emptying in Nairobi with the approach being suggested in Durban if interested in more details.
Franchising and output based aid are approaches that may hold some promise for pit-emptying and treatment in poorer areas. For further information please see:
An investigation of the franchising option for water services in South Africa, K. Wall, WEDC International Conference, 2004.
What is OBA? Supporting Infrastructure Delivery Through Explicit and Performance-based Subsidies (PDF, 0.98 MB), GPOBA, March 2005.