“Winning the race”: Sanitation in rapidly growing towns
Africa is the most rapidly urbanising continent. By 2010, four in ten of Africa's one billion people lived in urban areas. Six in ten of those lived in slums, where water supply and sanitation are severely inadequate. However, the majority of future growth is not forecast to be in the mega-cities, it is expected to take place in small and medium-sized towns. While smaller towns have less capacity to deliver services and often little sanitation infrastructure, their size and lower density provide significant opportunity for action that could help prevent the problems we now see in the slums of large cities. “Winning the race” will require local governments and their allies to be proactive in preparing for this urban growth.
AfricaSan 2011
On 20 July 2011, AusAid, IRC International Water and Sanitation Centre, PDM and WSP will convene a session at AfricaSan 3 on addressing the challenges of sanitation in a rapidly growing towns.This interactive session will discuss how we can understand the challenges ahead and practical and pragmatic ways to seize the window of opportunity in rapidly growing towns.
The session objectives are to:
- Discuss how local governments and their allies are to be proactive in preparing for rapid urban growth and the associated sanitation challenges.
- Share existing knowledge on this topic and tools that are available.
- Identify practical and pragmatic ways to seize existing windows of opportunity.
Expected results:
- A group of committed governments and individuals who are keen to continue the work and learning together on this topic.
- Better cross-fertilisation between Anglophone and Francophone Africa on an important issue.
- Identification of likely participants and subject material for a follow up ‘learning and sharing’ session.
- Proactive measures taken to underpin sanitation delivery in rapidly growing towns and cities across Africa.
For more on IRC's activities at AfricaSan 2011, see http://www.irc.nl/page/64906
Further reading on urban sanitation
International:
A collection of cases and essays on sanitation for the urban poor were written and compiled for IRC's 2008 Symposium (19-21 Nov 2008, Delft). Practitioners in the urban sanitation Masterclass organised by IRC together with BPD discussed the potentials and challenges of urban sanitation partnerships.
South Asia:
South Asia urban sanitation cases from 2008 practitioners workshop.
The ISSDP project worked on inclusive city sanitation planning in Indonesia. Several resources have been developed, including a paper describing the project; a photostory on involving women and youths and this factsheet with a focus on how to make sanitation services more gender equitable and fairer to the poor.
Latin America:
Small-Scale Private Sector and CBO Participation in Human Excreta Management in Latin America: Are They Making a Difference? specifically examines the effective involvement of SSIPs and CBOs.
Africa:
Recommendations from the East African practitioners' workshop (March 2011,Kigali), proceedings, a collection of cases and essays on sanitation for the urban poor.
Artists Joseph Nzomo and Salim Busuru from Kenya created the family and the comic strip which tells the story of their lives in the slums.
You can find various other resources on our site by using the search function or doing a document search in our digital library.
Rapidly_Growing_BG_Note_v Kigali.pdf (945.5 kB)
