kampala

SANITATION KAMPALA

INTRODUCTION

We were commissioned to investi gate sanitati on issues in Kampala’s slums and propose suitable low-cost toilet unit designs. This may sound like a straight forward topic which can be solved by applied engineering, yet it was not so easy. Getti ng the technology and fi nancing right was not enough, it was more complex than it seemed.

Access to adequate sanitati on is among the most basic human needs that apply to everyone. Yet many people, especially in the developed world, take sanitati on for granted. For many of us it is just a part of our daily routi ne; with no need to spend ti me worrying about it. It may seem that it is simply ‘given’ and that ‘someone’ takes care of providing water and treati ng our waste.

This does not apply to slums in Kampala, where lack of proper sanitati on is a serious issue which causes disease and can make living conditi ons unbearable. The worst is that the problem is rapidly accelerati ng, as urban populati on in Kampala increases faster than ever before. Defi ciency of sanitati on faciliti es and services is adressed by the internati onal community, but so far none of their diff erent interventi ons provide a simple and eff ecti ve soluti on. Slum dwellers have seen the need to take direct acti on to improve their own situati on. Through community mobilizati on and saving groups, like the ones organized in Kampala by ACTogether, they construct and operate new faciliti es. However, this is only a drop in the ocean.

This is where we come into the picture. By working directly with and for the poor communiti es, we att empt to help them identi fying what works well, what does not work at all and what more could be done to raise the sanitati on standards and make it more accessible.

METHOD

Our topic was very broad and touched upon a lot of diff erent themes; therefore we had to use a variety of qualitati ve and quanti tati ve methods in our research which made our fi eld work even more interesti ng. Some of the methods used in the project include meeti ngs with diff erent stakeholders, informal interviews, site visits in diff erent slums in Kampala, research on relevant policy, analysis of informal sett lements’ enumerati on data provided by local communiti es as well as design and mapping exercises. SANITATION OVERVIEW

Sanitati on problems in Kampala are closely related to the city’s topography. During the colonial ti mes, most of its urban development took place on seven hilltops, leaving the valleys in between as forests and open areas. However, when Kampala’s populati on skyrocketed in the second half of the 20th century, new informal sett lements started to develop in those low-laying areas and wetlands.

Only 7% of all Kampala’s residents are connected to a sewer network, which covers mainly the central area (KCCA, 2012). Very few slums have toilets connected to sewer pipes; therefore most of the city relies on onsite faciliti es, especially primiti ve pit latrines (see Map 1) in which feces are dumped into unsealed holes. The problem is that those low-laying informal sett lements experience frequent fl ooding, have poor drainage and a high ground water table, all of which makes water mix with human waste and garbage, causing contaminati on, health risks and bad odor.

In the worst cases when slum dwellers have a very limited access to any kind of toilet faciliti es, even those unhygienic, self-built pit latrines, they need look for other alternati ves. It is esti mated that around 22% of all households in informal sett lements are practi cing open defecati on (ACTogether, 2013), which literarily means dumping their waste just outside of their homes.

Pit latrine Ecosan Flush

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Map 1: Most common toilet types

OPEN DEFECATION (%)

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