Sanitation/Hygiene

Gender implications of inadequate sanitation in Kampala

 

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According to the World Health Organization, sanitation generally refers to the provision of facilities and services for the safe disposal of human urine and feaces ^[1]. Inadequate sanitation is a major cause of disease worldwide and improving sanitation is known to have a significant beneficial impact on health both in households and across communities. However, according to the United NationsMillenium Development Goals report 2011, over two and a half billion people still lack access to improved sanitation ^[2]).Women being the main users and managers of sanitation facilities are considered to be essential in improving the sanitation status world over but since they do not have major decision-making powers and resources, their role is often limited.It is important for sanitation and hygiene programmes not only to focus on what women can do to improve sanitation but also what are the consequences of inadequate sanitation for women.

Contents  [hide] 1 Status of sanitation in Kampala 2 Gender implications 3 Conclusion 4 See also 5 References 6 External links 7 Feed back

Status of sanitation in Kampala

Kampala is the largest city and capital of Uganda. Uganda is a landlocked country located in Eastern Africa. It is bordered to the East byKenya, to the north by South Sudan, to the west by the Democratic Republic of Congo, to the southwest by Rwanda, and to the south byTanzania. According to the 2012 Statistical Abstract, Kampala had 1.72 million people by mid 2012 ^[3]. According to UN-Habitat, 60 % of Kampala’s population live in slums and only 16% of slum dwellers have access to improved sanitation ^[4]. The Ministry of Water and Environment Sector Performance report (2010) attributes the development of slums and informal settlements in urban areas, especially in Kampala, which accounts for 35% of the urban population of Uganda to rapid urbanisation ^[5], These informal settlements and slums are characterised by poor sanitation practices. Many people do not have access to safe and private latrines and have to resort to rudimentary methods like open defecation or plastic bags commonly known as flying toilets. Most of the people in these areas are discouraged by the lack of property rights and high prices from investing in improved sanitation facilities. The majority of Kampala's poor (70%)households are tenants, only 30% of households own the houses they live in ^[6].

Gender implications

Inadequate sanitation puts a greater burden on women than men. Although there is common knowledge that the major impacts of poor and inadequate sanitation are diseases like diahorrea, women look at inadequacy beyond disease. According to the UN Millenium project, they can also be deprived of their right to dignity, privacy and safety ^[7]. Most slum dwellers rely on onsite sanitation facilities, which in most cases are located outside the house. Women, especially those living in slums, are exposed to humiliation and physical violence when travelling to communal latrines since these latrines are usually far from their homes and are shared by many people. According to a briefing note by "Sanitation and Hygiene Applied Research for Equity" (Share) entitled “Security and Shame”, a study was conducted in Kampala in 2011 to explore whether women are exposed to humiliation, violence and rape as a result of inadequate toilet facilities ^[8]. Some of the findings from this study are stated below. The findings which are representative of many slum dwellings in Kampala are as follows:

• There were not enough toilets to meet the needs of the population, meaning the available toilets were over-used and therefore filled up quickly. Most toilet facilities lacked facilities such as rubbish bins for the disposal of used menstrual pads or water for washing. This is demoralising and deprives a woman of her dignity since the toilet is considered the most private part in such communities for women to manage their menstrual periods. Menstruation is a natural process that occurs monthly in health adoloscent girls and pre-menopausal adult women. Girls begin to menstruate between the ages of 9 and 12. During a life time, a woman will manage menstruation on an average of 3,000 days ^[9], therefore it is important for menstrual hygiene to be incorporated in education curriculum right from an early stage in life to cause a sustainable impact among community members (both male and female).
• Since toilets are inadequate and far away from homes, because of fear of violence and rape at night, people in these dwellings resort to using alternative options such as using buckets or "flying toilets" which are these plastic bags thrown from the home to dispose of waste. This practice is dirty and demoralising. It is a cause of shame to many women given the fact that they have to defecate in their homes in the presence of their families. Women felt shame because they felt the use of home toilets dirtied their homes and exposed their families and neighbours to diseases. This shame was extended to menstruation. Shame was also related to rape.
• Women are responsible for managing scant household finances, meaning that they have to decide whether to spend money on toilets for their family or to resort to other options such as “home toilets”. Men are more likely to leave the community for work during the day and therefore have access to more or better toilets.
• Men need less privacy and can urinate in the open without any sort of stigma, whereas women need a toilet both to urinate and defecate. This also meant that men needed the use of the toilet less and were not faced often with problems such as high latrine user fees or having to use a communal toilet. Women also expressed their feeling that men would be able to resist potential attacks, making them less vulnerable than women travelling within the community after nightfall.

Conclusion

Sanitation for the urban poor often lacks an institutional home ^[10]. Local Governments,landlords and tenants have few incentives to invest in quality services within informal settlements, including sanitation facilities, resulting into households sharing a few on-site latrines or relying on communally managed paying toilets. Given the cost implication, most of the urban poor who reside in such areas opt not to use the improved sanitation facility. Also, poorly designed toilets result into pit latrines with wide drop holes. This creates a fear that children may fall into the toilets. As a result, women and children opt for polythne bags or "flying toilets". Given the above scenerio, in order to adress gender inequalities in access to sanitation, it is important for the central governments, local governments, the private sector and local women's groups to create partnerships to overcome technical and financial barriers to women accessing sanitation. These activities should incorporate an aspect of menstrual hygiene since it is one of the unavoidable gender issues that araises and it continues in a females life time therefore it can not be avoided or taken for granted.

Secondly, women should be involved in major decision-making and planning of sanitation facilities. This would help in ensuring safety in access to and from the household to communal toilets. women are more knowledgeable about these facilities since they are their major managers and users.

The inputs of men, women and mixed groups should also be taken into consideration since people in the community have complementary roles in planning, decision-making and implementation of sanitation activities.

See also

• Gender inequality, social institutions and the MDGs
• Domestic Violence in India
• Access to Water and Sanitation
• Access to Sanitation (on Wikiprogress)

References

1. ↑ http://www.who.int/topics/sanitation/en/
2. ↑ http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/11_MDG%20Report_EN.pdf
3. ↑ http://www.ubos.org/index.php?st=pagerelations2&id=31
4. ↑ UN-HABITAT (2007). Situational Analysis of informal Settlements in Kampala: Cities without slums sub-regional programme for eastern and southern: kivulu (Kagugube) and Kinawataka (mbuya 1) Parishes. Nairobi:UN-HABITAT.
5. ↑ http://www.mwe.go.ug/index.php?option=com_docman&task=cat_view&Itemid=0&gid=62
6. ↑ http://www.nadel.ethz.ch/publikationen/Kampala_Policy_Brief.pdf
7. ↑ UN Millenium Project (2005) Health,dignity and development: what will it take? Task Force on Water and Sanitation.London:UNDP.
8. ↑ http://www.wateraid.org/documents/insecurity_and_shame_uganda_final_low_res.pdf
9. ↑ http://www.irc.nl/page/40593
10. ↑ http://www.wsp.org/wsp/sites/wsp.org/.../WSP-gender-water-sanitation.pdf

External links

• www.wateraid.org/uganda/
• Water supply and sanitation collaborative council

Feed back

Access to Water

Access to Water in the Slums of the Developing World

Categories: Article | Slums | WSS | Access | Africa |Asia & Pacific

This article is based on an article in Poverty In Focus (by International Policy Centre for Inclusive Growth (IPC-IG)) Number 18, August 2009 by by Hulya Dagdeviren and Simon A. Robertson, University of Hertfordshire.

It highlights the difficulties of expanding utility networks in slum areas, which include technical barriers and a lack of land and housing tenure. The authors make a case for stronger public interventions.

Contents  [hide] 1 The problem 2 Trends in Slum Development 3 Access to Water in the Slums of the Developing World 4 Challenges for Public Utilities in Improving Access to Safe Water in the Slums 5 Can Privatisation of Utilities Provide an Answer? 6 Types of Informal Water Services in the Slums and Their Limitations 6.1 Community managed water schemes 6.2 Small-scale private water suppliers 7 Policy Recommendations 8 References 9 See also 10 External Resources 11 Attachments

The problem

The problem of inadequate access to safe water is nowhere more pressing than in the slums of the developing world. Most countries in which a large proportion of the urban population live in squatter settlements are unlikely to meet the water-related Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). This article argues that market-oriented policies make little, if any, difference in those circumstances.

Trends in Slum Development

About a third of the world’s urban population lived in slums in 1990, and the total number of slum dwellers might rise to 1.5 billion by 2020. Slum growth has been particularly marked in Africa where, on average, more than 70 per cent of the urban population live in informal settlement areas.

Public policies towards slums are highly politicised. They are influenced by factors such as the strength of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and other social groups, as well as by the politics of slum management. So far, governments have dealt with squatter settlements and the associated problems in three ways:

1. clearing slums through forced or legal evictions;
2. applying public policies that range from benign neglect to occasional interventions; and
3. regularising settlement conditions.

Forced evictions are still used extensively, especially in Africa and Asia, where over 14 million people were evicted between 1998 and 2006 (UN-Habitat, 2007).

Access to Water in the Slums of the Developing World

The increase in urbanisation and its disproportionate concentration in informal settlements pose problems for the expansion of water and sanitation services. Table 1 provides data on access to safe water in the countries with the largest slum populations in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, where conditions are particularly drastic.

Table 1:Access to Safe Water in Countries with the Largest Slum Population (%), Source UN-Habitat (2007)

UN-Habitat’s original database, which includes a larger number of countries, shows that urban access to improved water facilities declined in more than a third of African countries during the period 1990–2004. In many cities, there is a notably low rate of access to water through private household connections from network infrastructure. More than two-thirds of the urban population in Africa depend on water from non-residential connections. In half of the African countries, the share of residential water connections either declined or was static.

Lack of access to safe water in general, and lack of residential supply in particular, is positively correlated to the proportion of the population living in unplanned settlement areas. An important trend in Africa, and to some extent inAsia, is that improvements in access to safe drinking water were frequently accompanied by a decline in residential connections during the period 1990–2004. In other words, more people now rely on public standpipes, boreholes, “protected” wells and springs.

Challenges for Public Utilities in Improving Access to Safe Water in the Slums

1. Technical difficulties of infrastructure extension

The supply problems facing public utilities are exacerbated by a number of barriers that make it impractical to build the network in some slum areas. The most important are:

• The topographical location of settlements in previously unused land such as hills, ravines, flood plains and desert land.
• The physical conditions of the settlements, which are marked by a random and haphazard development pattern and overcrowding.
• The quality of the materials used to build housing units, such as thickened mud, plant leaves and stems, tin and plaster boards, which are unsuitable for permanent water pipes and taps.

2. Lack of tenure for land or housing

The result of the invasion of public or private land, can pose a significant obstacle to the provision of water services. This is because provision by utilities and the extension of water services by local authorities often depend on the existence of legal tenure for property. These two issues are challenging for public policy. Overcoming the difficulties associated with the settlement conditions outlined in (1) requires relocation of slum dwellers to more suitable areas and enforcement of housing standards. Granting full tenure in order to tackle the problems associated with the insecurity of tenure outlined in (2) may raise property prices and encourage the development of new slum areas. Dwellers may sell their plots and squat elsewhere. The policy may benefit the non-poor, especially property merchants. Opposition to redistributive policies, involving relocation and/or the formalisation of slums, can be testing for governments.

Can Privatisation of Utilities Provide an Answer?

Thus far, policies geared to improving access to water have emphasised the importance of market-oriented solutions (World Bank, 2004). The shift towards private or commercialised services has meant that direct public investment in the water sector has declined. But the resulting gap has not been offset by private sector investments (Estache, 2006). Where public utilities have been privatised there have been numerous problems related to cost recovery, affordability and regulation of services. Private service providers have not performed better than public operators. Nonetheless, though the outcomes have been disappointing, the drive for privatisation continues with renewed emphasis following a short period of critical reflection.

The potential for privatisation is even more limited in countries where a significant proportion of the urban population live in squatter settlements. In these settlements, the multifaceted nature of the problems (such as tenure, technical difficulties in building water infrastructure, widespread poverty, high population turnover) seriously constrain the capacity of privatised utilities.

Types of Informal Water Services in the Slums and Their Limitations

In the middle- and upper middle-income countries, slums are often supplied from the public network. In low-income economies, however, the provision of water in informal settlements is dominated by community-managed water schemes and small-scale private suppliers.

Community managed water schemes

Typically, these are facilitated by NGOs that help the community to build a shared water point such as water kiosk, which is then managed and run by people employed by the community’s members. These small-scale projects are crucial to the provision of water in the absence of other alternatives, but they are not problem-free. Water charges are higher and cross subsidisation is not feasible because the projects do not benefit from economies of scale. Their long-term maintenance can be difficult because of a lack of social cohesion, financial resources, and technical and management capacity.

Small-scale private water suppliers

Some 50 per cent of the urban population in Africa obtain water from small suppliers. These include water tankers, street vendors and other water re-sellers (that is, households with a piped supply or wells in their yards selling water to those without access). Their services are problematic for three reasons. First, their prices are much higher, partly because they lack economies of scale. Second, the quality of the water is highly dependent on the quality of sanitation services in the locale. Finally, where regulation is absent (which is often typical), prices may be subject to collusion. While it is desirable to regulate small, private suppliers, it is intrinsically difficult and costly to do so because of their size, variety and number.

Policy Recommendations

There are three fundamental reasons why governments should play a more active role in the provision of water and sanitation. First, universal access to safe drinking water has positive externalities in the form of lower rates of illness and mortality, an associated increase in productivity, and reduced medical costs. The returns from universal water coverage can be significant, varying from US$4 for each dollar invested in sub- Saharan Africa to US$17 inLatin America (Table 2). Second, privatisation is not an option in poor and low-income areas where services are not profitable.

Table 2: Cost-Benefit Ratio of Achieving Universal Water Coverage, Source Hutton et al. (2006)

Finally, as outlined above, there are specific failures associated with non-state, small-scale supply systems. In short, solutions to the lack of safe water services in the slums of the developing world lie in the following approaches:

1.Coordinated public sector interventions

Improving water services depends heavily on upgrading slum conditions more generally. Urban planning and tenure issues require multifaceted interventions within the remit of governments. That requires thinking outside the “water and sanitation box” (IIED, 2003).

2. The expansion of public network utility

Long-term policy should be devised in light of the costs and benefits of alternative systems of provision. There are serious doubts about the potential gains of both privatised network utilities (where planning and development challenges persist) and small-scale service providers (because of pricing and quality issues). Ultimately, these concerns can be resolved by investing in the expansion of the public water and sanitation network.

References

Estache, A. (2006). ‘PPI Partnerships vs. PPI divorces in LDCs’, Review of Industrial Organization 29, 3–26.

Hutton, G., L. Haller and J. Bartram (2006). “Economic and Health Effects of Increasing Coverage of Low Cost Water and Sanitation Interventions”, HDR Office Occasional Paper. New York, UNDP.

IIED (2003) Water and Sanitation: Water Will Deliver the Improvements Required for Urban Areas. International Institute for Environment and Development. London.

UN-Habitat (2007). Enhancing Urban Safety and Security: Global Report on Human Settlements 2007. Un-Habitat. Nairobi.

World Bank (2004). Reforming Infrastructure: Privatization, Regulation, and Competition. Oxford University Press. Oxford.

See also

Equitable Access to Basic Utilities: Public vs Private Provision and Beyond

External Resources

Attachments

Themes

Access to Water

http://herslums.blogspot.com/2012/10/access-to-water.html

Sanitation/Hygiene

http://herslums.blogspot.com/2012/10/sanitationhygiene.html

Social Services 

http://herslums.blogspot.com/2013/01/social-service-delivery-and-corruption.html

Gender-Based Violence 

 http://herslums.blogspot.com/2013/06/in-rio-de-janeiros-favelas-new-online.html

http://herslums.blogspot.com/2013/01/gender-based-violence-dhakas-slums.html

Gender and Family Structure

Female-Headed Households

 http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0197397589900295

 http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/4400963?uid=3739832&uid=2&uid=4&uid=3739256&sid=21102315122391
   
Informal Economies

 http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract;jsessionid=9CB52903529A8B0FADAE36319B262B44.journals?fromPage=online&aid=2506372

 http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=UQ6Fh-s_OVEC&oi=fnd&pg=PA173&dq=slums+informal+economy&ots=5aUCZUKMCl&sig=dyEBGN4jKFs1GE4y6ygWR0-WBzI#v=onepage&q=slums%20informal%20economy&f=false

 http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=2494648


Micro-entrepreneurship 

 http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1300/j125v05n01_05#.UbomYjfN6uI

 http://www.col.org/pcf3/Papers/PDFs/Ghadoliya_MK.pdf

 http://docsdrive.com/pdfs/medwelljournals/ajit/2006/1269-1283.pdf

 http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=cFs7ST7FLMMC&oi=fnd&pg=PA101&dq=slums+women+micro+entrepreneurship&ots=xCCoIupy20&sig=sDS0bcjAphALGuzGShBx-4tRTHM#v=onepage&q=slums%20women%20micro%20entrepreneurship&f=false

 http://www.microfinancegateway.org/gm/document-1.1.8151/The%20Impact%20of%20HIV_AIDS%20on%20Micro-enterprise.pdf

Education
  
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/15388220.2012.706874#.UboofDfN6uI

Human Rights

Land Tenure/Legal Rights

Economic Development 

Community-Based Organizations 

Local Governance 

Ethnicity/Caste/Identity and Power

Girls and Young Women

Personal Empowerment/Trauma Healing 

Sex Work

 http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00324720215933#.UbonLzfN6uI


Participatory Urban Development

NGOs

Government Response

Public-Private Partnerships 

Bilateral/Multilteral Donor Relationships

Slum Tourism 

Child Labor 

Access to Medical Services