Urban Sanitation Research Programme: Consolidated findings, 2015. WEDC.
Authors: Louise Medland, Andrew Cotton and Rebecca Scott
This report aims to present the synthesised findings of the SPLASH Urban Sanitation research Programme. This comprised five projects which conducted research in eight urban centres of seven countries of sub-Saharan Africa between 2011 and 2014. The research aimed to improve understanding and thus delivery of sanitation service provision in urban areas which include informal settlements.
Knowledge gaps highlighted through the research
- Transport and Treatment: Very little is known about the transport and treatment stages of the urban sanitation service chain and these gaps in knowledge make effective city wide planning challenging.
- Private sector capacities: More work should be conducted to understand the capacities of thetanker operators and their staff. Given that the private sector is likely to fill the gaps in serviceprovision that cannot be covered by public operators, it is useful to understand what capacities tanker owners and operators have to take on larger responsibilities for service provision and what is stopping them from doing it now.
- Treatment of faecal sludge for end-use options: There is relatively little information about the treatment of faecal sludge for end-use options that can be scaled up. Potential industrial users need to see more evidence of the technology used to produce solid fuel from faecal sludge working at scale. Treatment technologies and decision support tools need to be developed foreach faecal sludge end product (e.g. solid fuel, biogas, protein).
- Market conditions for treated faecal sludge end products: The market conditions for end products are also largely unknown. The starting point is a better understanding of the market potential for each end product, for example: what factors, such as price, quality or quantity, do the products have to compete on? What other similar products/sources do they compete against? What are the circumstances under which preference and use for each end product can increase?
- Financing of both the capital infrastructure and recurrent operation and maintenance costs: Financing for faecal sludge management (FSM) remains a challenge for city wide planning. The research findings from FaME in particular provide a starting point for developing afunding plan for faecal sludge management (FSM), including capital and operational expenditure and income but much more information on the reliable financial flows within the sanitation service chain is needed.
