Can you share us any experience in establishing sustainable management system for a public toilet in slum community?

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I am Project Coordinator supporting sanitation project implemented by Hope for Children and funded by Events for Namuwongo. Under this sanitation project,Hope for Children (UK-based charity) has constructed 3 public toilets within community of Namuwongo, one of theslums in Kampala. One of the toilet was operational since 21st January 2014, but two are not yet operational. The first toilet was opened to public free of charge for two week and then a user fee of 100/= per visit was introduced for adults, but children continue accessing the services for free. Most existing private toilets charge 200/= visit, so through opinion survey, we set user fee at 100/=. When toilet access was free to all, the average daily visit was 1326 people and after introduction of payment, the average daily dropped to 416 during February and 350 during March. The fundamental question is around the sustainability. We have so far collected about 916,000/= since payment was introduced, but amount of money used since the toilet was operational exceed 5,800,000/=. Some of the existing private toilets are owned by local leaders and one of the fear is that during project exit handing these toilets to them will automatically lead to them owning them as their private properties. These community are considered as illegal occupantsinto government land (railway land reserve and wetland), so they legally don't own any land. Hope for Children's intervention was necessitated by extremely poor sanitation conditions and public health risk, but land ownership had been one of the critical challenge during the implementation. Therefore, does any one has a sustainable business model of running such a public toilet in an informal settlement (slum) area? Please share your ideas with me at draleketm@gmail.com

4 Answers

  2. Titus, Sulabh flush compost toilet is eco-friendly, technically appropriate, socio-culturally acceptable and economically affordable. It is an indigenous technology and the toilet can easily be constructed by local labour and materials. It provides health benefits by safe disposal of human excreta on-site. It consists of a pan with a steep slope of 25°-28° and an especially designed trap with 20 mm waterseal requiring only 1 to 1.5 litres of water for flushing, thus helping conserve water. You can visit their website http://www.sulabhinternational.org and read about their experiences and technology in more detail.

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  3. Rare are the countries which make paying public toilets. one sees continuation with dimensions harmful one for a gesture which nature always considered natural. For 60 years town planning has not been able to conceive diagrams of town planning without putting the collective cleansing automatically at it. This diagram is a true Biological Economic ecological catastrophe that it is on the infrastructure that on the management and the maintenance of the system. the A.B individual Biological cleansing is Economic Ecological Biological and Productive. All opposite of the collective cleansing. Which best example than a precise case: A commune of 980 H in completely obsolete collective cleansing in sorry states equipped with a sewage treatment plant of capacity of the double but except service since 5 years. The new information system strategic plan of collective cleansing which is prolonged existing it to remake as well as a new sewage treatment plant: estimated cost: 6 d'€ million The information system strategic plan of A.B the CEBRE estimated cost 600.000€. The worthless performance épuratoire of the collective near to zero, The performance épuratoire of the CEBRE: 98% without production of mud residues thus without palliative treatment. A revolution in the approach and the follow-up of the treatment of waste waters compared to the traditional collective cleansing

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