This World Toilet Day, we’re spotlighting innovative and unconventional solutions to accelerate change and achieve universal access to sustainable sanitation services where it is most needed. As it emerged from the 1st IWA Conference on Non-Sewered Sanitation (NSS) recently held in Johannesburg, South Africa, on 16-18 October 2023, off-grid sanitation solutions can be a game changer for those still lacking access to safely managed sanitation. 

Millions of people around the world do not have proper sanitation facilities. The statistics are alarming: approximately 4.2 billion people, over half of the global population, lack access to safely managed sanitation. We have reached the halfway mark of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in 2030. However, progress has stagnated, is unevenly distributed between countries, and is inadequate to eliminate the inequalities to ensure that the most vulnerable are reached. Inadequate sanitation has far-reaching consequences, posing significant health risks, environmental pollution, ecosystem degradation, and human rights violations.  

According to a recent Joint Monitoring Programme (JMP) Report, achieving universal coverage by 2030 will require a sixfold increase in current rates of progress for safely managed drinking water, a fivefold increase for safely managed sanitation, and a threefold increase for basic hygiene services. The next seven years have been referred to as a sprint to achieve the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.  

The next 20 years will be a golden age for wastewater and sanitation, now is the time for #SanitAction. This year’s World Toilet Day’s focus on Accelerating Change reminds us of the urgent need to speed up progress in ensuring access to safe and dignified sanitation for all. It provides an opportunity to highlight a global issue often overlooked but crucial for human well-being: sanitation. Adequate access to clean and safe sanitation facilities is a fundamental human right, a cornerstone of public health, and a catalyst for positive change in diverse aspects of life. 

The 1st IWA Conference on Non-Sewered Sanitation: A Game Changer 

The just concluded 1st IWA Non-Sewered Sanitation (NSS) Conference couldn’t have been more than timely as we take stock of the progress registered thus far towards achieving the SDGs, particularly SDG 6.2. It provided an opportunity to reflect on the sanitation service inequality that still plagues our world.

The NSS Conference offered the much-needed space for innovative thinking and discussions on off-grid solutions for sanitation, which are critically important to address the significant service delivery gaps not met by conventional centralised systems. What we’ve learned from the conference is that the status quo is not an option and 19th-century solutions won’t work anymore. As such, we need to rethink sanitation and move towards more off-grid, decentralised, and circular approaches.  

The topics discussed spanned from innovative technologies, financing models, governance, and capacity building to urban sanitation approaches including nature-based solutions, climate-resilient approaches, City-wide Inclusive Sanitation, and the fundamental role of research. The event offered a diverse group of delegates and a great line-up of distinguished speakers and experts who shared insights, experiences, and knowledge. The African Development Bank and African Water Facility shared insights  about the “Africa Urban Sanitation Investment Initiative (AUSII)” – a new sanitation-focussed financing window to support City Wide Inclusive Sanitation (CWIS) in Africa’s cities and urban areas. It is great to see increased and dedicated funding and investments towards sanitation, and such funds including the AUSII are needed to enhance the efforts of African governments to meet the targets of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for water and sanitation. In another workshop, a team of experts from the University of Technology Sydney – Institute for Sustainable Futures (UTS-ISF) and the University of South Florida, presented an innovative approach – ClimateFIRST – for designing climate-resilient non-sewered sanitation technologies. The approach involves a process that considers how climate-related hazards can affect sanitation technology and how the risks of these hazards can be reduced through technology design. 

The Role of Integrated Urban Services Planning in the Sanitation Revolution

It was also impressive to witness the participation of non-sanitation experts and stakeholders, particularly urban planners, housing, and development sector representatives, in such an exclusive sanitation event. This proves that sanitation is a critical component of and is intrinsically linked to water supply, wastewater, drainage, and solid waste management – all of which are critical service delivery components of urban planning and development. There is growing evidence and discussions supporting this, including the recently published reports by UN-Habitat on “Global Report on Sanitation and Wastewater Management in Cities and Human Settlements”; Advancements in and Integration of Water, Sanitation, and Solid Waste for Low- and Middle-Income Countries; To integrate or not to integrate? Water and waste as unified basic services; and IWA’s publication on Lessons Learnt: Regulating for CWIS. I would like to believe that we can only be able to fast-track progress in this second half of the SDG era if we deliberately adopt a more integrated, multi-disciplinary and multi-sectoral approach to address the global sanitation challenges albeit the increasing effects of climate change and urbanisation. We need a paradigm shift to change the status quo – let’s stop speaking to ourselves as sanitation experts and involve all key stakeholders. 

Accelerating Change: The Global Acceleration Framework and SanitAction 

“Accelerating Change” suggests a sense of urgency and ambition. It encourages governments, organisations, and communities to step up their efforts.  

A ray of hope beams over the horizon – we have a starting point. The UN-Water has developed an SDG 6 Global Acceleration Framework: a unifying initiative designed to deliver fast results. The five accelerators (financing, governance, capacity development, innovation, and data and information) provide a valuable framework for achieving accelerated, coordinated progress on sanitation. Importantly, the five accelerators are cross-cutting and interdependent; work under one may overlap with others. The framework also requires a collaborative approach leveraging public-private partnerships. As many countries, cities, towns, and communities are at different levels of progress, the priority interventions will vary from context to context, thus the framework should be contextualised and localised. 

This World Toilet Day 2023 underscores the urgency and importance of addressing sanitation issues worldwide. It’s a call to action for governments, UN Agencies, civil society organisations, the private sector, academia and individuals to redouble their efforts to ensure that everyone, everywhere can enjoy their basic right to proper sanitation. Let’s unite in our efforts to accelerate change and achieve universal access to sustainable sanitation services. Join the SanitAction movement and be a part of the solution. Share your thoughts, ideas, and actions using #SanitAction and together, let’s leave no one behind in the pursuit of inclusive urban sanitation for all.

The climate crisis demands urgent action across all sectors to reduce emissions and adapt to changing climatic conditions and sanitation is no exception. While there are no quick fixes, emerging research shows that actively managed services such as container-based sanitation benefit both adaptation and mitigation and should have the potential to secure valuable – and so far, elusive – sources of climate finance.

Sanitation is estimated to contribute a whopping 4% of global human-caused greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, including 2-6% of global methane and 1-3% of global nitrous oxide emissions. In Kampala, half the city’s emissions are due to sanitation despite the city having many other sources of emissions. Researchers are only recently discovering the significance of sanitation, which has been estimated by the GWI to contribute two-thirds of global WASH emissions, with water contributing the remaining third. Of these, half are estimated to stem from sewers and half from off grid sanitation – the latter largely stemming from anaerobic digestion in pit latrines and septic tanks that are not frequently emptied, and from wastewater treatment plants lacking methane capture.

At the World Water Week session on Mobilizing Innovations: taking action on climate resilient sanitation in last August, convened by partners of the Climate Resilient Sanitation coalition, Barbara Evans of Leeds University presented her recent research on measuring emissions from off grid sanitation. She was clear: there are no magic bullets, BUT but most of the evidence suggests that ‘actively managed WASH’ helps improve resilience and reduce emissions.  

How does this work? By frequently collecting and treating waste, and often separating faeces from urine, actively managed services such as container-based sanitation (CBS) reduce anaerobic degradation and related emissions.  

In the container-based sanitation (CBS) community, we have long been passionate about seeing sanitation as a service, not just a technology. We’re often asked about our toilet design and hardware, which varies amongst providers – as do their waste treatment processes and human waste-derived products. A key common thread, however, is the service element. To our surprise, we’re now realising that the frequent emptying that the service provides brings added climate benefits – both for adaptation as well as mitigation.

Actively managed services also support adaptation by reducing the risk of untreated waste leaking into the environment during flooding. CBS systems also use little if any water and are thus well suited to areas facing water scarcity.  

With the mitigation potential in mind, in 2020 CBSA developed a calculator tool to measure CBS greenhouse gas emissions and found that CBS systems can significantly reduce GHG emissions from sanitation, estimating that the four operators studied collectively mitigated 44,000 tCO2e over a year, representing 60% to 96% of baseline emissions, confirming CBS as a climate-smart solution. Further research in Haiti, found CBS reduced GHG by 126 kg CO2e per person per year. These figures are the equivalent of 112,796 and 323 miles driven by an average petrol-powered car, respectively.  

Despite this, the links between sanitation and climate are still lacking. There is minimal inclusion of sanitation in climate policy and financing, including in countries’ Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) climate pledges and National Adaptation Plans (NAPs). This means that little climate finance, which aims to assist developing countries in adaptation and mitigation practices to counter climate change, reaches water and sanitation projects.  

Recognising this, CBSA has been looking into the potential of carbon credits for unlocking a form of climate finance. Our 2022 feasibility study found that, despite several challenges, carbon credits have the potential to provide a viable revenue stream for CBS providers in urban contexts. Modelling CBS scale up projections using existing carbon credit methodologies, the five services examined, collectively earned US$2.4 million in eligible carbon credit revenue over five years for approximately 81,000 toilets and co-treated solid waste.  

While this is exciting, accessing carbon credits remains costly and complex and only starts to become viable when operating at a particular scale, i.e., at least a small neighbourhood of 5-10,000 households. Still, given these numbers, the twin benefits of adaptation and mitigation could be an interesting win-win for climate-conscious utilities and for those trying to raise climate finance which is still heavily skewed towards mitigation.  

To be clear, while some forms of sanitation may be able to gain revenue from carbon credits, they will not be lucrative enough to close the funding gap left between actual servicing costs and user payments/product sales. This is partly because of the significant registry and consultant fees; partly because the latest emission factors have not yet been officially acknowledged and partly because of many eligibility rules and other carbon credit complexities. CBSA is currently working to address these where possible to make carbon credits more accessible to CBS operators. 

The sector still has a long way to go, but the adaptation and mitigation benefits of active management provide an important, and potentially game-changing, opportunity to address climate issues and unlock new sources of funding.

Photo credits: SOIL (cover image) and Clean Team Ghana

While the water supply and sanitation sector in Uganda has undergone significant, systemic changes over the last decade, the 2009 Tariff Policy no longer spoke to the realities of delivering safe, financially sustainable, and socially equitable services. For this reason, Uganda’s Ministry of Water and Environment (MWE) decided to review existing water tariffs and develop a new tariff policy suitable for multiple models of managing networked and non-networked water service systems and sources.

The first step was to assess the 2009 Tariff Policy. The major observations were:

• Limited scope: The policy mostly covered small towns, rural growth centres, and sewered sanitation, with little attention on urban areas and non-sewered sanitation.
• Out of date: The policy’s strategy and targets aligned with outdated national and international goals (e.g., the Poverty Eradication Action Plan (PEAP), which ended in 2011, and the Millennium Development Goals, which ended in 2015).
• Inadequate subsidisation framework: The policy did not allow for cross-subsidisation between customer types.
• Unclear steps for implementation: Implementation activities, roles, and responsibilities were not clearly outlined or assigned.

Through further research and consultations, four key priorities emerged for a new tariff policy:

1. Structured and transparent subsidies: A policy should encourage clarity and transparency about how and why public finance is being leveraged to improve services.
2. Flexibility: A policy should outline common guiding principles for all providers while allowing them to develop tariff structures appropriate for their service delivery context.
3. Reinforce service provider contracts and business plans: A policy should guide how various instruments will work together to guide service planning and delivery.
4. Long-term cost recovery: Tariffs should be situated in a long-term strategy to improve cost-recovery rates.

The new tariff policy, developed by Athena Infonomics in partnership with WSS Services (U) Ltd., was accepted by MWE in 2023 and now:

• Covers all declared water and sewer authorities, water point sources, and all aspects of sewered sanitation and non-sewered sanitation.
• Establishes a uniform tariff structure across all systems and service areas.
• Promotes inclusivity through different tariffs for specific customer groups, including poor households who were previously only able to access lower-cost water through public standpipes, and allows for cross-subsidisation within a service area.
• Provides a more relevant and expanded concept of subsidies, including eligibility requirements for subsidies linked to performance improvement plans.
• Includes an implementation strategy that stipulates activities and assigns roles and responsibilities to MWE departments.

This last point is fundamental. One of the findings from this process was that many service authorities need to build up their own internal systems, assign roles and responsibilities, before they can design and implement a sophisticated, context-appropriate tariff structure. This is especially true in the case of Uganda’s six regional ‘Umbrella Authorities’ (UAs), which cover rural communities and small towns that the national water utility does not reach. As relatively new service authorities, the UAs need to build up their internal organisational capacities and processes if they are to serve geographically disparate and financially challenging customer bases without government support.

The new policy’s accompanying implementation strategy therefore includes several prerequisites if new tariff structures are to be successfully designed and applied. Efforts to professionalise the UAs are underway, including a World Bank-funded project where Athena Infonomics is supporting improved accounting/financial systems and ingraining sustainable operations and maintenance practices.

Positioning UAs and other stakeholders to respond to the new tariff policy will take time, but the revised policy and associated tariff-setting guidelines are a major turning point in the delivery of water sanitation services in Uganda, underlining MWE’s commitment to achieving universal access to safely managed water and sanitation through steady systems-building. The provisions in the new tariff policy are also well aligned with the principles of citywide inclusive sanitation. The International Water Association’s publication on “Lessons Learnt: Regulating for Citywide Inclusive Sanitation” particularly highlights cross-subsidisation from water to sanitation, and from affluent areas to less affluent areas, to make service provision affordable and feasible.

We invite you to continue the discussion around inclusive water and sanitation systems and regulations at the upcoming IWA Water and Development Congress in Kigali, Rwanda on 10-14 December 2023. Registration is open.

Cover image: courtesy of Nina R. via Flickr

Water is a vital resource that sustains life, drives economic development, and maintains ecological balance. Despite Rwanda’s abundant rainfall, the water sector faces significant hurdles. Limited water storage infrastructure, high water losses, and the impacts of climate change necessitate sustainable solutions. As we approach the Water and Development Congress & Exhibition in Kigali on 10-14 December 2023, here we shed light on the increasingly important role played by young water professionals in tackling Rwanda’s water sector challenges. Looking ahead, join us and explore how young water professionals are shaping the future of water management in Rwanda at the IWA Water and Development Congress & Exhibition in Kigali, where we will come together to discuss and seek sustainable solutions for a water-wise future. 

Water Challenges in Rwanda 

Rwanda, known for its lush landscapes, has a complex water situation. The country is characterised as water-scarce, with only 670 m³ of water per capita per year. Furthermore, climate change exacerbates the situation, leading to frequent floods and landslides. In 2020 alone, devastating floods and landslides caused numerous fatalities and extensive damage to infrastructure and crops. To address these challenges, innovative approaches and a skilled workforce are essential. 

The IWA Young Water Professionals (YWP) Rwanda Chapter, informally operating since 2012 and officially registered as an NGO in 2019, plays a pivotal role in addressing water sector challenges. Comprising talented young professionals with diverse skills, the chapter leverages state-of-the-art skills and expertise to find sustainable solutions. Our contributions span several areas: 

1. Flood Risk Management: Through advanced modelling and forecasting techniques, including artificial intelligence, we assess and predict flood risks. Emphasising nature-based solutions, we prioritise adaptation and mitigation measures for enhanced climate resilience. 
2. Sanitation Technologies: Building on our expertise in natural wastewater treatment systems, we develop innovative and effective sanitation technologies. Our aim is to improve sanitation access and promote environmentally friendly solutions. 
3. Non-Revenue Water Reduction: Addressing high water losses during the supply chain, we actively contribute to the development of state-of-the-art technologies that monitor and reduce non-revenue water. These efforts enhance water management efficiency. 
4. Workforce Development: Recognising the significance of a skilled workforce, we focus on capacity building initiatives. By equipping young professionals with essential knowledge and skills, we contribute to the professional development of Rwanda’s water sector workforce. 

Looking forward to the IWA Water and Development Congress & Exhibition 

The YWP Rwanda Chapter eagerly anticipates active participation in the IWA Water and Development Congress & Exhibition. Our abstract on “Nature-based Flood Adaptation Measures in Informal Settlements” reflects our commitment to context-specific solutions and showcases our research-oriented projects. Additionally, we will actively contribute to the Emerging Water Leaders Forum, tailored for young water professionals. More information coming soon!

The Congress provides a unique platform for the YWP Rwanda Chapter to connect with other IWA YWP chapters worldwide. We will exchange knowledge, share experiences, and develop future strategies. This event offers valuable networking opportunities and the chance to establish strategic partnerships, further advancing water and development solutions in Rwanda. By fostering collaboration, knowledge exchange, and sustainable practices, we can all contribute significantly to sustainable development. 

We hope that the Water and Development Congress & Exhibition, coupled with our initiatives, inspires water sector professionals worldwide and highlights the transformative power of water for development in Rwanda and beyond. Registration for the event is now open, find out more: www.waterdevelopmentcongress.org

Urban water inequality is a significant challenge in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, a city of 1.4 million inhabitants, the majority of whom have transitioned from a nomadic lifestyle. The city’s harsh climatic conditions and uneven development exacerbate the issue, particularly in the Gers located on the outskirts, where nomads reside in temporary tent houses. 

Rapid urbanisation and commercialisation in Mongolia have not only affected the pastoral way of life, culture, and tradition but also the environment. The majority of the urban poor in Ulaanbaatar, including former nomads and pastoral communities, live in traditional Ger areas. These areas lack services such as fresh water, wastewater disposal, and central heating systems. In winter, extreme temperatures lead to the use of raw coal, rubber, and even plastic for heating. This, combined with environmental degradation, has caused water problems and social issues, particularly in rapidly growing Ger areas.

Water Inequality and Gender Disparities 

Ger areas suffer from limited access to safe water and sanitation. Most residents rely on unsealed pit latrines and unsafe water sources such as rivers, springs, and hand-dug wells. Women, who are primarily responsible for managing water, face greater risks and challenges, further exacerbated by social class differences. The labour-intensive process of fetching, storing, and managing water negatively impacts their well-being. Inadequate sanitation facilities and expensive private bathhouses pose additional hardships, particularly during menstruation. Water-related practices also increase the risk of violence against women and girls. 

To achieve inclusive urban sanitation, it is crucial to understand the diverse water practices and analyse the associated inequalities. Efforts to address urban water inequality in Ulaanbaatar must acknowledge the diverse challenges and consequences faced by different social groups. A uniform set of solutions cannot adequately address water issues, as they vary across locations. Detailed analysis should consider the embedded gender, class, and socioeconomic dynamics in daily water practices, highlighting the consequences and inequalities related to water and sanitation access. Further research and investments are necessary to promote inclusive, resilient, water-wise, and sanitation-secure cities. 

By promoting inclusive urban sanitation, we can strive towards equitable access to safe water and sanitation for all. Efforts should focus on addressing the challenges faced by the urban poor in Ger areas, particularly women and girls who bear the brunt of water-related responsibilities. Adequate sanitation facilities, improved water supply systems, and targeted interventions can contribute to the wellbeing and empowerment of marginalised communities. With a comprehensive understanding of water practices and a commitment to equality, Ulaanbaatar can build a sustainable and inclusive future.  

I look forward to continuing the discussion on water inequality, gender and sanitation at the upcoming IWA Water and Development Congress & Exhibition on 10-14 December 2023 in Kigali, Rwanda. The congress has a strong focus on improving urban sanitation, inclusiveness and equality. Discover the programme topics here and save the date! waterdevelopmentcongress.org

Insights provided by Khulan Dorjsuren, Environmental Specialist from Ulaanbaatar Mongolia

The past 

Global water leaders are meeting in New York on 22-24 March 2023 after 46 long years since the first UN Water Conference held in Mar del Plata, Argentina, in 1977. The conference report, also known as the Mar Del Plata Action Plan, identified the critical role that water resources play in improving human social and economic livelihood. The Plan also noted the need to implement specific and concerted actions for solutions at national, regional and global scale, without which a better quality of life and promotion of human dignity could not be assured. 

Following the conference, the first UN Water Decade from 1981–1990, also known as the International Drinking Water Supply and Sanitation Decade (IDWSSD), is estimated to have granted access to safe drinking water for over a billion people globally. However, many professionals were of the view that the IDWSSD failed to achieve its goals, mainly due to its broad approach. The issues were generalised and addressed without taking into account regional, national and community differences. For instance, the Action Plan was not based on a holistic approach and did not consider the role of local communities. It mainly focused on the contributions of national governments, which as a result gave governments the leverage to either choose to go by the Plan or not. Lastly, the Action Plan did not come with targets or timelines, which made the assessment of progress difficult.  

Conversely, the IDWSSD cannot be said to have been a total failure because it brought a much-needed spotlight on the importance of clean water and adequate sanitation for all. In that decade, the role of national governments in investing in the provision of clean water and adequate sanitation was highlighted; a role that was previously reserved mainly for regional and international development organisations. In that same decade, the idea of access to clean water and adequate sanitation being a human right was birthed, and the call was sustained through to 2010 when the UN resolved to formally recognise the human right to water and sanitation. Additionally, metrics for measuring progress in terms of water and sanitation access were initiated. Significant progress was recorded both in knowledge generation and practice. Several initiatives came into force with inspiration from the Mar del Plata Action Plan, including, but not limited to, the 1992 International Conference on Water and the Environment, the 2015 Millennium Development Goals Agenda that had a goal dedicated to water, the World Water Day initiative, and the 2016 Sustainable Development Goals Agenda, which has a goal dedicated to water and sanitation, with associated clear targets. 

The present

Currently, efforts are being focused on the Sustainable Development Goal on water and sanitation (SDG 6). Progress on SDG6 is slow, undermining the human right to water and sanitation. Organisations have become increasingly aware of the silos that exist in the water and sanitation sector and are developing programmes to ensure cross-sectoral approaches in implementing solutions. The mapping of stakeholders has taken an inclusive approach over time with women, youth, marginalised groups, and users being consciously included in various levels of engagement spanning from decision-making, design, and implementation of solutions. Lots of innovations and initiatives, both at the global and local scale, are being churned out to solve the water and sanitation challenges. Examples are bio-digester toilets, capturing water from the atmosphere, performance improvement contracts, water safety plans, WASH incubator and accelerator programmes, digital water systems, open access to WASH publications, and more. This shows that there is a lot of effort being directed towards access to clean water and safe sanitation compared to the first water decade. Interestingly and progressively so, the WASH sector is holding itself to the highest standard and wants to make sure that the SDG 6 targets are met on time, hence the call for actionable commitments to be made in the midterm review of the water action decade. 

The future

After this midterm review of the water action decade, all the other sectors will be monitoring the WASH sector to see how progress is being accelerated so they can learn from best practices. To make sure the sector stays on track, I outline some ideas that can be explored. 

Implementation Drive

As mentioned above, there have been many useful innovations in the sector over time. To achieve significant progress, attention should be given to the implementation of numerous innovations. At this stage, adequate resources and policies need to be developed to create a conducive environment for the execution of projects that transfer these innovations and inventions from shelved prototypes to minimum viable products and beyond. This will ensure that the solutions are deployed at the local level. 

WASH–Employment Nexus

Currently, there are still high numbers of people who do not have access to clean water and safe sanitation, and there are multiple challenges related to water conservation due to climate change and human-related activities. On the other hand, unemployment is still one of the longstanding global challenges of the world that is threatening the national security of several countries. It is necessary to understand the volume and the kind of workforce needed to reach the SDG 6 targets by 2030. Once that is done, the next step will be to design academic, vocational, and technical programmes targeted at the unemployed population. Also, there is the need to approach the provision of water and sanitation services from a sustainable self-financing angle, which allows the services to pay for their maintenance and expansion. The WASH crisis provides the avenue for job creation and the employment crisis provides the workforce. What are currently missing are the right training, resources, and political will to harness the benefits of the WASH-employment nexus. If this is done successfully, a larger part of society will be working on specific sustainable initiatives improving access to WASH services for more people. 

Global Accountability System

Authorities responsible for the implementation of WASH policies, programmes, and projects need to be held accountable on their output and their goals and objectives. The current regime of individual states self-reporting on the SDGs does not work. National governments should be encouraged to set their own self-paced and characteristic objectives, but there must be an independent global system to monitor progress while taking into account national limitations and differences.  An independent accountability system can expose mismanagement of WASH-related resources and low levels of commitment and dedication by governments on the water action agenda. This accountability system could go a long way to help donor agencies and investors to know where to donate or invest for maximised societal and environmental impact. A good example is how the International Monetary Fund uses the debt to GDP ratio and other fiscal indicators to assess countries. I believe that there should be a similar system that will compel countries to prioritise universal access to clean water and safe sanitation.

Cover image: ©UNDESA. In the picture: Mr. Li Junhua, Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs and the Secretary-General of the UN 2023 Water Conference; Mr. Henk Ovink, Special Envoy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands for Water; and Mr. Sulton Rahimzoda, Special Envoy of the President of Tajikistan for Water.

International Women’s Day is celebrated annually on 8 March, highlighting the achievements of women worldwide while also calling for greater gender equality. One critical area where gender disparities are still prevalent is in the access to water and sanitation services, which disproportionately affects women in low- and middle-income countries. In many places, poor sanitation practices place significant barriers on women, making it challenging for them to access basic needs such as water, sanitation, and hygiene.  

Poor sanitation as a barrier for women and girls 

The impact of poor sanitation on women in low- and middle-income countries is multifaceted. In these countries, access to basic sanitation facilities is often limited, with millions of people lacking access to safe and clean toilets. This can have significant health implications for women, including increased rates of urinary tract infections and other diseases. Additionally, inadequate sanitation facilities can also make it difficult for women to manage their menstrual hygiene, which can lead to embarrassment and stigma, as well as increased risk of infection. 

The lack of proper sanitation facilities can also impact women’s safety. In many places, women are forced to use open fields or other outdoor spaces as makeshift toilets, which can leave them vulnerable to sexual harassment, assault, or even animal attacks. This is especially true for women who must venture out alone at night to use the bathroom, putting them in danger. 

Moreover, poor sanitation can also have an economic impact on women. When women must spend a significant amount of time and energy collecting water, searching for a safe place to relieve themselves, or caring for family members who are sick due to poor sanitation, they have less time to devote to income-generating activities, which can perpetuate the cycle of poverty. This lack of these basic necessities can lead to girls missing school and women being unable to work or participate in other daily activities, which has a significant impact on their social and economic empowerment. 

So, what can be done to address these issues?  

First and foremost, there must be greater investment in improving sanitation infrastructure in low- and middle-income countries. This includes the construction of safe and clean toilets, as well as the provision of clean water and proper waste management systems. In addition, more needs to be done to address the stigma around menstruation, including promoting the use of affordable and environmentally friendly menstrual hygiene products, such as reusable pads and menstrual cups.

WaterAid India’s brief report ‘Menstrual Hygiene Management: Informed Product Choice and Disposal’ aims to create awareness regarding the menstrual product landscape in India for women and girls to start making an informed choice as per their needs. 

It is also important to engage women themselves in the process of improving sanitation. Women’s voices and experiences should be central to the development of sanitation policies and programmes. This includes working with women to develop innovative and culturally appropriate solutions, as well as involving them in the planning and decision-making processes. 

Finally, we must also work to address the underlying gender inequalities that contribute to poor sanitation outcomes for women. This includes challenging harmful social norms that perpetuate gender-based violence, discrimination, and exclusion, and promoting women’s leadership and empowerment at all levels of society. 

In conclusion, poor sanitation is a significant barrier to the health, safety, and economic well-being of women in low- and middle-income countries. By investing in improved sanitation infrastructure, engaging women in the process of change, and addressing underlying gender inequalities, we can work towards a world where all women have access to the basic sanitation facilities they need to thrive. Doing more to improve sanitation means doing more for a world that is more equitable, diverse and inclusive.

This International Women’s Day, let’s commit to #SanitAction and #EmbraceEquity to ensure that all women have the dignity and respect they deserve. 

Date: Wednesday, 22 March 2023​

Time: 11:00-12:15 EST (Eastern Standard Time)​

Location: UN Headquarters, Side Event Room B​

Registration: Event open only to UN Water Conference registered delegates​

Background

The 2022 Sustainable Development Goals Report exposed some very concerning data about the world’s progression towards SDG6, showing that meeting WASH targets by 2030 will require a fourfold increase in the pace of progress. Metrics about safely managed sanitation are particularly alarming, sending a clear message that current policies and practices are not working, and immediate action must be taken.

There is an urgent need for an accelerated and inclusive approach to expanding safe sanitation service coverage. Multiple technologies are available for achieving this – both sewered or onsite, centralised or decentralised. But mere technology choices do not ensure the end users will benefit as they should. Governments must lead by taking a wider perspective into consideration, including the governance mechanisms, the laws and regulations that clarify the mandate for safe and inclusive services, understanding how authorities and private sector operators can be organized and incentivized, and how individual contributions and needs must be aligned and supported to also ensure that environmental public health goals are being met.

Description of the session

The session on Cross-sectoral partnerships to accelerate progress towards inclusive sanitation will look beyond technology and the usual focus on building infrastructure and discuss how to adopt a holistic approach to create a conducive policy, legal, institutional, and regulatory environment that enables and incentivizes accelerated progress towards safe sanitation services for all. Further, the session will also discuss and highlight the role and importance of science, innovation and development in bridging and shortening this pathway will be highlighted and shared.

Representatives from the public, private, and social sectors will bring to the table their perspectives on how cross-sectoral and intergenerational partnerships can collaborate to support national governments in achieving SDG 6.2 through: (1) developing enforceable policies, laws, regulations, and guidelines that clearly define roles, responsibilities, accountability mechanisms, and resources for planning, execution, and management for inclusive services; (2) building strong institutional arrangements that address equity, safety and sustainability targets; and (3) establishing finance planning and management institutions that are designed to shield these policies and institutions from political and economic instability.

Format of the session

The session will be designed to allow maximum debate among panellists and the audience. Panellists will have a limited amount of time – 3 to 5 minutes each – to make igniting pitches. The remaining time will be used for Q&A and discussions involving the audience. The format of the debate will be defined considering the room layout (if possible, using the world café or fishbowl format, to ensure inclusivity). The final 10 minutes of the session will be used for wrap-up, announcement of IWA’s voluntary commitment to advocate for inclusive sanitation agenda, and presentation of the SanitAction campaign – IWA’s call for collaborative action to reshape the global agenda on urban sanitation over the coming years.

The outcomes of this session will be used by the participants of the Youth4SDG6 fellowship programme as input for a joint IWA/Grundfos publication on the critical need for youth engagement in the implementation of the 2030 Agenda.

Key Partners

• Government of Brazil (National Water and Sanitation Agency) 
• Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF), USA 
• United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF)
• Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit GmbH (GIZ), Germany 
• Grundfos, Denmark 
• African Global Networks, South Africa 
• Water Youth Network, the Netherlands 
• International Secretariat for Water (SIE-ISW), Canada 

Panellists

• Kala Vairavamoorthy, International Water Association, United Kingdom
• Filipe Sampaio, National Water and Sanitation Agency, Brazil
• Brian Arbogast, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, USA
• Bisi Agberemi, United Nations Children’s Fund, USA
• Arne Panesar, Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit GmbH (GIZ), Germany
• Virginia Newton-Lewis, Grundfos, Denmark
• Jennifer Molwantwa, Water Research Commission, South Africa
• Maitreyi Koduganti, Water Youth Network, the Netherlands
• Vladimir Arana, International Secretariat for Water, Canada
• Kelvin Chitumbo, Eastern and Southern Africa Water and Sanitation (ESAWAS) Regulators Association, Zambia

On World Toilet Day, the international community will assess its progress on providing sanitation to all.

Unfortunately, while we’ve made significant advancements, we are not on track to provide universal access to safely-managed sanitation by the UN’s target year of 2030.

Today, nearly half of the world’s population uses sanitation services that leave human waste untreated.  Meanwhile, 673 million people still practice open defecation and an estimated 367 million children attend a school with no sanitation facility at all. Poor sanitation devastates public health, as well as the environment and social and economic development.

Inequalities persist: for women and girls who are unable to meet their menstrual health needs, with additional burdens placed on people with disabilities and refugees; for people living in rural areas and in informal settlements, where distance and political ambivalence prevent the delivery of safe and affordable sanitation; for people living downstream from dysfunctional treatment plants, among other inequalities due to disability, religion or other discriminatory practices.

Achieving UN Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 6 – clean water and sanitation for all – requires more funding, and critically, more political engagement. With our partners in the lead, the UN-hosted Sanitation and Water for All global partnership (SWA) has identified a group of people who could be playing a more active role in the promotion of sanitation as an important part of the development process. Parliamentarians have the legislative power and budgetary oversight to turn policy into practice, to improve sanitation services for all, particularly for those who currently have no or only basic access.

Parliamentarians can use their roles of representation, legislating, oversight, and budget scrutiny to address the bottlenecks hindering both the implementation of the SDGs and the realization of the human rights to water and sanitation in their countries.

Enshrining this right in national legislation and policy can be an effective first step, with a country’s constitution providing the strongest general guarantee of human rights within national legal frameworks.

Additionally, a country’s national legislative framework for water, sanitation and hygiene should be examined to ensure it complies with human rights standards – ensuring services are available to all, especially to vulnerable or marginalized individuals and groups. Legislation that includes human rights also provides legal obligations for oversight and monitoring of implementation and compliance, which can be a powerful tool to increase transparency, identify clear responsibilities and boost accountability.

Parliamentarians can also influence budgets and can raise the profile of sanitation by demanding the inclusion of sanitation in all aspects of resource allocation from budget formulation and allocation, to approval, execution and review.

Civil society organisations and people who suffer from inadequate sanitation can work with researchers, scientists and other practitioners, engaging with parliamentarians to challenge the taboo and stigma of sanitation. Moreover, they can raise their voices through public hearings and inquiries conducted by parliamentarians, providing essential testimony to the challenges of lacking sanitation, and the benefits that sanitation brings to people lives through improved health, access to work and education. They can also work with networks and coalitions which may have long-established connections with parliamentarians.

Finally, there are international review processes that parliamentarians can join, such as the UN’s Voluntary National Reviews, which monitor progress on the SDGs, and the Universal Periodic Reviews, which assess the fulfilment of human rights obligations. SWA’s Mutual Accountability Mechanism also provides a multi-stakeholder platform that encourages commitments from all relevant actors to improve access to sanitation. SWA’s tools portal provides helpful resources for engaging parliamentarians. Moreover, parliamentarians and other stakeholders can learn more about improving legislation on water and sanitation through SWA’s dedicated parliamentarian handbook.

Parliamentarians are increasing their understanding of and their commitment to sanitation in a growing number of countries, working at the highest levels of government. But it’s not yet enough. As we celebrate World Toilet Day, let’s ask our parliamentarians to put our sanitation goals back on track.

IWA has launched an Inclusive Urban Sanitation initiative.  The initiative aims to reshape the global agenda on urban sanitation and is being promoted through a dedicated campaign – SanitAction – to gather the support and collaborative action needed to secure progress. Engage with us and join the conversation online using #SanitAction.

For most of the world’s one billion low-income urban dwellers, water is undrinkable. Even when accessible municipal water is relatively safe, faecal bacteria contaminate the water as it is dispensed at shared water points and subsequently by ‘people as infrastructure’ who carry it to their homes. We know of many adverse consequences for the dwellers and the wider society when poor sanitation meets drinking water. Further troubles may be forthcoming.

Policymakers have signed-up to ambitious targets, such as Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) Target 6.2 and Citywide Inclusive Sanitation. These underline that safe sanitation is a precursor to safe water and that urgent action on sanitation is needed. Yet, achieving safe sanitation at scale remains a challenge. UN data shows that we are seriously off track to ensure safe toilets for all by 2030. With only eight years left, the world needs to work four times faster to meet the objectives.

Classed as offering limited sanitation services, shared toilets within low-income settlements are often left out of official sanitation improvement programmes. This remains a key challenge. However, encouraging new research in this area reveals many positives that are missed as a consequence of such policy neglect, including climate change mitigation potential in sanitation via off-site composting of human waste. This article introduces our research-driven, inclusive concept of connecting toilets in low-income settlements to a safe circular water economy. The idea was recently debated at an international symposium at Lancaster University, and subsequently presented in September 2022 at the IWA World Water Congress & Exhibition during a workshop on ‘Learnings from inclusive urban sanitation initiatives’ organised as part of IWA’s Inclusive Urban Sanitation initiative.

Conclusion: A Clear Case for Circular Approaches

What does circular processing of faecal matter mean to us?

This means connecting all available toilet facilities inside low-income settlements to a safe circular water economy. Activities may include maintaining the technical integrity of the toilet facilities, regularly collecting/emptying and safely treating the faecal matter, valorising the end-products, and undertaking a complementary suite of empowerment and capacity building initiatives. Working for, and with, communities, across scales, and involving industries is vital.

Connecting the Unconnected

We hosted around 100 members of the WASH community at a two-day symposium at Lancaster University, UK in March 2022. The event built on research and networks from the ACTUATE, RECIRCULATE and Last 100 Metres projects in Bangladesh, Ghana, Nigeria and Tanzania. Other symposium participants drew on projects including Brown Gold, Circular Economy for Sanitation, SOS and IWASH.

With >80% of symposium participants coming from Asia and Africa, the event fostered South-South knowledge exchange. Contributions from a range of perspectives led to lively interdisciplinary debates during the hybrid event. To find out more about the event, take a look at the symposium proceedings and short documentary (with/without sub-titles).

Conclusion: A Clear Case for Circular Approaches

The solution to poor sanitation practices requires more than supply-driven, hardware-focussed interventions.

Participatory, community-based, educational approaches have an important role to play, not least to better align sanitation with the everyday realities of the direct users.

These approaches enable communities to ‘see, learn and own’ the social, economic and environmental value of safely managed faecal waste e.g. the potential for capturing greenhouse gases, producing bio-energy and creating soil-conditioner as valuable end-products coupled with the associated health benefits of reducing faecal contamination.

Putting the approach into operation will require a concerted and sustainable set of actions to optimally capture/remove faecal matter from, and prevent faecal contamination within, informal communities.

To be sustainable, innovative education pathways are needed to ensure that invisible faecal contamination is ‘made visible’ to ordinary people, those tasked with water provision, and those with a mandate to set global agendas.

This ‘visibility’ could be scientific, perhaps involving community youth and classroom experiments so that the next generation can then help educate their peers as well as parents. This could involve education through art, drama, show labs or cultural practices.

What is demanded is a sanitation strategy built on rigorous interdisciplinary analysis that – like the provision of clean drinking water – is a cause for celebration and pride. A key action is to turn water for sanitation into a more compelling policy issue for politicians, the mass media and civil society. To do so, IWA has launched an Inclusive Urban Sanitation initiative.  The initiative aims to reshape the global agenda on urban sanitation and is being promoted through a dedicated campaign – SanitAction – to gather the support and collaborative action needed to secure progress. Engage with us and join the conversation online using #SanitAction.

Acknowledgement

We acknowledge our funders (RECIRCULATE, ACTUATE and Last 100 Metres), our network of research partners, the symposium attendees, and our respondents on the ground.