Sustainable Sanitation Practice - Financing Sanitation

How to finance sanitation systems was and still is a major challenge. Issue 24 of Sustainable Sanitation Practice (SSP) on „Financing sanitation“ shows three successful examples how sanitation can be financed. The papers presented in this issue are:
• David Auerbach describes the Sanergy Way for sanitation provision in urban slums in Nairobi, Kenya,
• Rochelle Holm et al. present a study on funding mechanisms for private sector participation and provision of rural household sanitation facilities in Malawi, and
• Charles Omona presents sanitation system financing models and examples of successful financing models for
households and institutions in Uganda Issue 25 (January 2016) presents „The NaWaTech Project“, a joint European-Indian research project that started mid of 2012 and ends in December 2015.

Content - Summary

Sustainable Sanitation Provision in Urban Slums – The Sanergy Way

Sanergy, a Nairobi-based social enterprise, builds healthy prosperous communities by making hygienic sanitation
accessible and affordable in urban informal settlements. We take an innovative, systems-based approach that addresses the entire sanitation value chain. We build high-quality, low-cost sanitation units, known as Fresh Life Toilets, which we franchise to community members, who run them as businesses. We collect the waste on a regular basis, removing it from the community. We then convert the waste into valuable by-products, including organic fertilizer and insect-based animal feed, which we sell to regional farmers. Through this model, we are making it profitable – and thus sustainable – to provide hygienic sanitation in urban slums.


Why financial lending institutions are not willing to provide services to the private sector for rural sanitation and hygiene (Malawi)

This study examines the gap between financial lending institutions and sanitation and hygiene services within Nkhata Bay District, Malawi. The study reviewed literature and policies, and conducted interviews, field observations, focus group discussions, household and lending institutions surveys, and peer reviewed workshops. Results suggest the following recommendations: promoting informal financial services, improving access for “risky” customers, improving knowledge for financial service providers, and promoting loan diversity. Although it has been found in Malawi households are willing to pay, cash, for improved sanitation, build-up of private sector businesses is hampered by lending institutions not willing to provide financial services.


Sanitation system financing models and good practices at households and at institutional levels in Uganda

Planning for long lasting services require identifying and estimating the costs of sanitation service systems over their lifetime. It is crucial to understand and know what financial means are needed and when. Rather than focusing only on the user interface (i.e. the toilet), sustainable sanitation financing has to consider the entire sanitation systems and all the service costs within the sanitation service chain. The lifecycle costs incurred over the whole life of sanitation Service provision includes (a) Initial Investment, (b) Day-to-Day Operations, (c) Intermittent Maintenance, and (d) Asset Renewal. To finance sanitation sustainably, a number of financing models for household and institutional sanitation have been tested successfully. These include sanitation soft loans, revolving funds, and Output Based Approach (OBA).The OBA is being implemented by planners and practitioners in water and sanitation development facilities of the Ministry of Water and Environment in Uganda and lessons learnt from practices will contribute to stimulating service demand for improved service delivery and attract further investment sector.

Bibliographic information

Auerbach, D. et al. (2015). Sustainable Sanitation Practice - Financing Sanitation. EcoSan Club, Vienna, Austria, Sustainable Sanitation Practice (SSP) Issue 24, October 2015

Filter tags

English Sub-Saharan Africa

Further readings

Download