KAMPALA sItuAtIoN

This toolkit was developed as part of the field work of students from the Urban Ecological PlanningMaster’s Program at NTNU, in collaboration with the Makerere University, the Slum Dwellers Federation and the local NGO ACTogether. The students were divided into six groups, which worked on different issues, including housing, land sharing, market upgrading, building material training centre and sanitation. These projects were identified by local communities and are meant to propose realistic solutions and provide recommendations to real-life problems of slum dwellers in Uganda.

The team working on the Sanitation topic consists of seven students (five from NTNU and two from Makerere University) as well as an engineer consultant from the Engineers Without Borders organization. The group is working in two different locations – four students were based in Kampala and three in jinja. There is a mix of cultural and professional backgrounds. We have architects, engineers and planners working together and sharing their experience for the benefit of the project.

The respective student groups in Jinja and Kampala analyzed the existing sanitation situation through case studies of sanitation units and meetings with relevant stakeholders in the community and government. Lessons learned from this analysis have informed the creation of a set of criteria for implementation of sanitation projects for long-term success. Failures we have witnessed in case studies can be attributed to missing one or more criteria.

The criteria drive our designs of sanitation technology and maintenance packages. designs are also informed by questionnaires and discussions with community members, that gave us insight into existing challenges, needs and wishes, and practical examples of successful projects elsewhere in the world. The first section of this report gives a background to sanitation in Jinja and Kampala and specific lessons learned from case studies during our field study in Uganda. These lay the base for the development of seven criteria for success in sanitation projects. Most of the criteria are not design specific but highlight the need to consider the socio-economic context into which projects are placed and to plan for long-term management.

The second section provides a brief introduction to types of toilet technology. Technology details and recommendations are included in Appendix. We then introduce the packages with a matrix of site characteristics and packages that can be used to identify potential packages for a given project. The following eight packages each include technology details and sizing, superstructure design, material suggestions and cost estimates for initial and annual cost. Packages are meant as preliminary designs to enable comparison and discussion between several options. Assumptions and details for technology sizing and cost estimates can be found in Appendix C and D.

Because of the importance of long-term maintenance, we have included three maintenance frameworks for residential, market and public sanitation units. Each design package can be paired with a maintenance framework.

Appendix A shows a site-specific example of how to use the toolkit to identify and discuss different package options. The second example is neighborhood scale and discusses site location and scaling of units.