Water & Sanitation

Sanitation and the Environment: Confronting Africa’s Urban Crisis

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  5. Local Solutions Are Key: Why Sanitation Must Be Integrated Across Sectors

    In the global development landscape, sanitation often doesn’t get the attention—or the resources—it urgently needs. Yet, access to safe sanitation is foundational to public health, environmental sustainability, and human dignity. So, how do we ensure it gets prioritised? One critical answer lies in rethinking how we approach sanitation interventions—starting from the ground up and integrating them across sectors.

    Time and again, community-led and locally driven models have shown that they work. Whether it is through self-financed toilet programs, community-led total sanitation (CLTS), or small-scale water systems, local solutions tend to be more responsive, more sustainable, and often more cost-effective. They take into account cultural norms, local needs, and existing networks.

    Yet, in many cases, these models are sidelined in favour of top-down infrastructural investments. While infrastructure is important, it cannot replace the value of deep community engagement. Especially in contexts where financial resources are scarce, starting with local solutions isn’t just smart—it’s necessary.

    Another major challenge is that sanitation is often treated as a standalone issue. In reality, no sector exists in isolation. Roads, housing, health, water supply—these are all closely interconnected. Sanitation should be woven into the fabric of these broader development efforts.

    For example, as roads are expanded in urban and rural areas, why not integrate sewage systems or public toilet facilities into the design? As new housing developments are planned, why not include decentralised sanitation models that communities can maintain?

    The siloed approach simply doesn’t match the complexity of real-world needs. And truthfully, the sanitation sector alone rarely attracts enough funding to meet global demand. But when it’s part of a larger, integrated development plan, it stands a much better chance.

    Ultimately, the responsibility falls to planners, policymakers, and development agencies. They hold the tools—and the influence—to design programs that make sanitation a core component of national and local development strategies.
    By combining top-down infrastructure with bottom-up innovation and integrating sanitation into broader sectors, we can create solutions that are both scalable and sustainable.

    It’s time we stop treating sanitation as a secondary issue and recognise it for what it is: a central pillar of human development.

  6. Prisca Nabachwa says:

    This write up offers a timely and compelling analysis of Africa’s sanitation crisis, effectively linking poor sanitation to broader development challenges including public health, climate change, and urban sustainability. One standout strength is the call to reframe sanitation as critical infrastructure, not a secondary service an urgent mindset shift that policymakers must adopt. There is a need to further to discuss how data systems, real-time monitoring, and impact measurement could strengthen sanitation investments. MEL frameworks are critical for accountability, especially when leveraging climate and blended finance.

  7. Christopher Burke’s powerful article highlights the deep crisis of underinvestment in sanitation across urban Africa and the silent yet devastating impact it has on health, climate, and development. As someone who conducted a WASH-focused field study in Nakivale Refugee Settlement under the Makerere School of Public Health, I find his observations not only accurate but urgent.

    In our 2023 research with YAREN Organisation, we assessed water, sanitation, and hygiene conditions in private refugee schools in Nakivale. Our findings mirrored the concerns Burke raised: overfilled or cracked pit latrines, inadequate handwashing stations, and widespread contamination of shallow water sources were not theoretical challenges; they were daily realities. Some schools served over 400 learners with a single overburdened latrine, and in several cases, we documented visible contamination risks, from broken taps to drainage trenches that directly exposed children to waterborne diseases.

    Burke rightly notes that poor sanitation does not just threaten health; it undermines environmental resilience, food systems, and even education. Our data confirmed this. Schools with inadequate sanitation reported lower attendance, especially among girls, and a higher frequency of preventable illnesses. Moreover, the use of pit latrines near shallow wells correlated with water testing that showed unsafe nitrate and phosphate levels, hoing studies referenced in Burke’s article.

    Yet, as his article insists, sanitation remains chronically underfunded, partly because toilets and treatment plants don’t yield visible profits. But what they do yield, as we saw in Nakivale, is dignity, safety, better learning outcomes, and long-term community stability. Burke’s call to frame sanitation as climate-resilient infrastructure must be taken seriously. Our work shows that rainwater harvesting, community-led behavior change, and low-cost sanitation improvements can be both scalable and transformative.

    I deeply resonate with the insight from Christopher Cripps that we must treat sanitation not as an isolated sector, but as part of a broader urban ecological system, alongside water, food, waste, and energy. This systems-thinking approach is vital, especially in vulnerable communities like refugee settlements, where multiple risks overlap.

    Finally, I echo the call for blended finance models, community ownership, and inclusive planning, especially involving women and youth. These were key elements in our work at YAREN. We observed that the most sustainable WASH practices were those where local schools, parents, and youth groups were engaged as co-creators, not just beneficiaries.

    Sanitation is not a side issue; it is a foundation for sustainable development, peace, and resilience. Our experience in Nakivale confirms what this article so clearly argues: if we delay action, the costs to health, dignity, ecosystems, and economic growth will only escalate.

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