In Nairobi, Kenya, the team explored the enormous challenges of providing sanitation in densely populated slums such as Kibera where highly transient tenants have little incentive to invest their own resources in sanitation improvement - but where space is at such a premium that landlords are reluctant to forfeit potential rent income by using scarce land to provide toilets; consequently the availability of toilets and ablution facilities falls pitifully short of what is needed.
The team met with NGOs working with CBOs to provide communal and public facilities and promote awareness of basic hygiene; with a private sector agency developing sanitation products for schools and institutions; with manual pit emptiers providing an essential service in appalling working conditions; and with government representatives grappling with the challenges of their role and responsibilities in an environment where there are few easy answers.
The visit highlighted the challenge of land tenure, the range of approaches possible (including some of the difficult decisions to be made about level of service), and also the complexity of dynamics between landlord and tenant, and between government and non-government roleplayers.
Nairobi highlighted the range of approaches being taken to tackling urban sanitation, but also the complexity of the dynamics between landlord and tenant, and between government and non-government actors. NGOs share fora with local and national government to discuss policy issues, but service delivery arrangements tend to be less organised. Linkages between the many actors working on sanitation, while usually cordial, are few and informal and very limited in comparison to the scale of the challenge in Nairobi’s slums.
One notable observation is that many of the successful examples of sanitation interventions are taking shape within a broader context. For instance in Kibera it is an emerging strategic alliance among slumdwellers and service groups, that seeks to improve general living conditions within the slum, that’s having an impact on sanitation. There is perhaps a lesson here for those wishing to improve sanitation in similar contexts elsewhere.
See the short overview of BPD’s Nairobi case study.
The following link is to work on communal pay toilets and tenants in Nairobi, published in IIEDs Environment & Urbanisation, which highlights some of the challenges faced in Nairobi.
Please also see this BPD paper that compares manual pit emptying in Nairobi with that in Durban, where an interesting franchise approach is being employed.