Planning sustainable sanitation

The need for participatory development approaches is widely recognized. Community participation is championed as a way to develop ownership, community empowerment, and promote demand-driven economic models for sanitation promotion. The participatory approach is often tied to a decentralized democratic process which seeks to manage problems close to their source. Participatory planning requires recognition of different groups of stakeholder, each with their unique set of priorities and drivers for sanitation improvements (Sharp, 1998; IWA, 2006). Both the formal and informal sectors of society should be recognized (Choguill, 1996) and involved to an appropriate degree (GHK, 2000).

Two of the main impediments to sustainable sanitation are low prioritization of need and lack of maintenance on existing systems. Capacity development can address both of these problems through educational measures for awareness raising, social marketing and capacity development. Health education, social marketing and sanitation promotion efforts will increase awareness of the need for improve sanitation as well as the demand for it. However, it is also necessary to develop the technical and organizational capacity of communities to participate in planning, management and maintenance of sanitation systems once they are in place. This type of capacity development includes the training of politicians, architects, real estate agencies, managers, technicians, masons, and entrepreneurs in the formal and informal sector who will stimulate the market. Sustainable capacity development requires effective communication and information sharing both during and after the planning process. Education and training initiatives should be linking into local and regional learning alliances so that the learning processes will continue after the initial project stimulus is gone (Moriarty et al, 2005). By working closely with institutions and local communities during capacity development exercises planners will also be supporting participatory processes.

Increasing economic efficiency requires a more holistic approach than the traditional one that is based on demand projections from demographic and income analyses. Marketing of sanitation services needs to respond to realistic assessments of demand, but should also be affordable for all levels of users (Wright, 1997). This will require the unbundling of investments, both geographically and by hardware components, so that services can more easily be adapted to meet demand. The demand-based economic models are therefore closely linked with both participatory approaches and capacity development since they rely on consumer input and social marketing strategies. The process of creating an informed public demand and listening to that demand at the planning level greatly increases the chances that the services offered will be appropriately matched with affordability (GHK, 2000). However, offering affordable technology will still need to be backed by equitable credit and financial arrangements that encourage investment through reduced up-front costs and cost recovery.

The key to responding to consumer needs and making sanitation affordable for all is to consider a wider range of technical options. This often requires taking a wider view of sanitation itself, by considering the linkages with water supply and solid waste systems (GHK, 2000). Sanitation technology can either integrate these systems (i.e. waterborne sewerage and land filling of faecal sludge) or separate them (i.e. on-site dry toilets and direct recycling of nutrients). Planning for the configuration of the systems should also consider the most appropriate level of service provision, i.e. large centralized networks, neighbourhood systems, or household level. The advantages and disadvantages to each type of technology and system structure must be evaluated for the local conditions and matched with existing demand, managerial capacity, and user needs (IWA, 2006). In general, the prevailing attitude is to look at the functionality of the sanitation system rather than the technology itself.

A critical component to all of the planning principles is the process of soliciting and responding to feedback. Although responding to both consumer and technical feedback are intrinsic functions of the other principles, without specific reference to the feedback loop itself, it risks being lost behind the more visible, core actions of the other processes. The entire planning process should be linked in an iterative and participatory way, so that technical and socio-economic issues are assessed together throughout the process (Norström, 2007). Both the planning and implementation processes should take manageable steps towards intermediate objectives (GHK, 2000). Using such an incremental approach with feedback loops in between steps increases incentives to reach immediate goals, and keeps the project on track through consistent evaluation of progress.