Sanitation services for the urban poor: Symposium background paper

This paper addresses sanitation for the urban poor from a service delivery perspective. This entails a shift from simply seeing interventions as capital projects towards a systems approach that considers all elements required to provide sustainable and appropriate sanitation services to the poor at scale. The paper argues that urban sanitation services should consider:

• The entire sanitation chain: confinement (the toilet seat and safe storage under the seat), removal and transportation of faecal sludge, subsequent treatment and disposal or re-use.
• The service delivery process: planning, construction, operation and maintenance, and subsequent renewal of service delivery elements.
• Both hardware and software elements, particularly hygienic behaviour.

The paper is written by Joep Verhagen and Peter Ryan (IRC).

Background Paper Symposium Sanitation for the Urban Poor FINAL.pdf (671 kB)