Urban sanitation - lessons from experience

Kevin Tayler

doi:10.3362/1756-3488.2008.004

Urban sanitation - lessons from experience

Providing adequate sanitation to people in rapidly growing cities, particularly those living in low-income areas, is one of the greatest development challenges of the 21st century. A number of conceptual approaches to meeting this challenge have been developed but these tend to assume conditions that rarely exist in practice. A more pragmatic approach is required, learning from what has and has not worked in the past.The paper assesses some well-known sanitation initiatives in order to establish what worked, what did not work and why. The main focus is on schemes in South Asia, involving low-cost sewerage. The analysis reveals problems with systems, not least in the coordination between different stakeholders. Further examination shows that on-site sanitation systems experience similar problems relating to the disposal of faecal wastes. The paper concludes that we need to pay renewed attention to the physical aspects of sanitation provision but within the context of an increased awareness of the importance of overall systems and recognition of the realities of conditions in the field.

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