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Toilets as opportunities?

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  My last blog will be continuing on the theme of toilets – offering some hope for the future of toilets in informal settlements in the global south. The film Slumdog Millionaire perfectly captured the paradox of slum life – the harsh conditions that people are living in, but also the potential of entrepreneurialism to generate income. This paradox is also seen in Mathare, an informal settlement in Nairobi, Kenya (as shown in Figure 1).   Figure 1: Alleyway in a slum in Mathare, Nairobi In Mathare, the toilet is being reinvented – not just on a public health imperative, but as a business opportunity (‘A toilet is not just a toilet’). At ‘Number 10’ neighbourhood, a shared toilet (which has a fee to use) is managed by a local youth group , generating income for themselves as well as other avenues – such as a mobile banking kiosk and water point, which are next to the toilet. In this way, urban sanitation is linked to urban economies and infrastructures. Ikotoilet (as shown in
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'A toilet is not just a toilet'

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This blog will delve further ‘into’ something that I have touched on in my other blogs – the toilet – of which discussions of sanitation have been mobilised around. While I was watching Slumdog Millionaire , I started to understand the scale of the sanitation crisis in informal settlements in the global south. From the hanging latrines – which can pollute waterways and often require payment, to open defecation, which thousands of slum residents have to navigate every day. In this setting, a toilet is a symbol of vulnerability and urban precarity . In 2020, 3.6 billion people lacked safely managed sanitation, including 494 million practicing open defecation . As Figure 1 shows, Sub-Saharan Africa has higher rates of open defecation, compared to the rest of the world, and Madagascar has huge inequalities in the levels of open defecation within the country – from rural to poor areas, richer to poorer. Not only should the elimination of open defecation focus on the poorest and rural area
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Menstruation - a hope for the future?

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My last blog looked at Women and the WASH sector, and this blog will follow on, by focusing on one aspect – menstruation – offering some hope for the future by tackling period poverty. Menstrual hygiene management (MHM) can prove challenging for women and girls in low-income countries, where there is a lack of money and access to menstrual hygiene products (MHPs) as well as inadequate sanitation conditions to deal with their menses. Menstruation is a private matter that is rendered public, and hence there is a taboo that comes with it. This provides challenges for talking about it, and implementing change. Improving MHM starts with safe access to water and sanitation systems . Adequate MHM at school for girls can reduce absence, increase concentration in class and lead to better life outcomes for themselves . Without this, girls worry over public bleeding, having a private place to manage their menses and having a place to dispose of MHPs (as described by one girl ‘ where will we d
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Women and WASH in Nairobi, Kenya

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  In my last blog, I looked at some realities in the WASH sector, one of which is the experience of women and girls. The importance of this is recognised in SDG 6.2 , which is to ‘achieve access to adequate and equitable sanitation and hygiene for all … paying special attention to the needs of women and girls’. This blog will look at the experiences of women and girls in the WASH sector, focusing on informal settlements in Nairobi, Kenya.   Inadequate sanitation results in various health, economic and social impacts that disproportionality affect women and girls, especially in informal settlements . Impacts on women reported in Mathare, an informal settlement in Nairobi, include violence ( 68% of women reported ), respiratory illness (46% reported) and diarrhea (30% reported). Illness increases economic burdens which mostly affect women, as they have to miss work to care for the sick. Women and girls have specific hygiene needs, such as menstruation, requiring adequate sanitation. Wi
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The realities of WASH in Africa

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  Following on from my last blog, where I mentioned the dichotomy between reports and realities of the quality of water and sanitation, this blog will be looking at the realities on the ground; faecal contamination of water, differentiation in supply and data inadequacies. Only 8 years until the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are due to be achieved, and there is still major progress to be made. Especially in terms of water and sanitation, addressed by SDG6 .  In Africa in 2020 , only 39% of people used safely managed drinking water and 27% used safely managed sanitation. Therefore, in order to meet the SDGs by 2030, there needs to be 12 times increase in the rate of progress on safely managed drinking water and 20 times increase for safely managed sanitation! Africa, particularly Sub-Sahara Africa, needs to be at the forefront of improving water and sanitation systems, as these regions currently face the least delivery, shown by Figure 1.   Figure 1: Percentage of populati
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Why write about water and sanitation in Africa?

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  Did you know that every day nearly 1000 children die due to preventable water and sanitation related diarrheal diseases ? Or that 2 in 5 people don’t have access to a basic hand washing facility (with soap and water)? Welcome to the WASH web, where over the following weeks I will be exploring some of the key issues related to water and sanitation in Africa. Including access to ‘improved’ water, toilets and handwashing and women and water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH). Globally there is an unequal distribution in the deaths attributed to unsafe water. Figure 1 shows that Sub-Saharan Africa has much higher death rates than other regions – with some countries, such as Chad having over 100 deaths per 100,000 people. Therefore, improving water and sanitation in Africa is critical if SDG 6 (clean water and sanitation) is to be met by 2030.           Figure 1: Map to show global distribution in death rates from unsafe water sources, 2019   My interest in water and sanitation cam
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