By 2050, two-thirds of the world’s population will live in urban areas: with much of the urban growth expected to take place in developing regions, particularly Africa. As a result, managing urbanisation has become one of the most important development challenges of the 21st century. People are moving to cities in search of economic opportunities […]
This International Women’s Day, WSUP is profiling three women leaders who are improving water and sanitation services in urban areas in their countries. Read on to find out more about the role that these three women are playing in delivering better services, and their thoughts on why improved WASH is a women’s issue: Faustina Boachie […]
Poor sanitation in the peri-urban areas of Maputo, Mozambique, has a disproportionate impact on the lives of women. But women are also playing a key role in tackling the challenge. “We had a precarious latrine that over the course of time became damaged, and collapsed due to heavy rains,” recalls Rute Rodrigues (pictured above), a […]
NextCity.org has published an editorial from WSUP on the water crisis in Cape Town. By Neil Jeffery, Chief Executive, Water & Sanitation for the Urban Poor (WSUP) In Cape Town, South Africa, residents who take a plentiful supply of water for granted are preparing for massive water shortages in the city. At some point in […]
How can the private sector work with city authorities to improve sanitation for low-income customers? In Kisumu, western Kenya, WSUP is working with the city utility KIWASCO, an SME called Gasia Poa and the County Government to improve collection and treatment of faecal waste in low-income communities. The film demonstrates how the partnership works and […]
Solid waste. It’s everywhere in the urban communities where we work – clogging up drains and waterways, and impacting on the health of cities. Municipal authorities in developing countries frequently lack the capacity to manage waste across the city and as a result huge amounts of solid waste is illegally disposed. In Dhaka, for example, […]
Guest blog by Loan Diep, Doctoral researcher at UCL Centre for Urban Sustainability and Resilience (USAR) and former Project Officer, WSUP Advisory Millions of people’s water needs in the MENA region are currently unmet. In Jordan and Lebanon providers have seen huge jumps in water demand with the arrival of Syrian refugees fleeing conflicts. Some […]
Utilities and local governments struggle to deliver safely managed sanitation to residents at the scale required to serve everyone in the city. Sanitation SMEs have a critical role to play in helping to bridge the service gap, offering efficiency, innovation and flexibility to address complex issues. But what role should the public sector play in […]
It is no secret that sanitation is a challenging area for formal businesses to profit from. The use of the term “formal” here is deliberate, and important – so what does it mean? A formal pit emptying business, for example, is likely to be registered and licensed by the municipality to conduct pit emptying services, […]
Cholera is a common public health burden in cities across the developing world, and tackling the spread of cholera in low-income communities is of high priority for city authorities. Particularly in regions where rainy seasons lead to frequent flooding, residents who rely on unimproved sanitation and drinking water facilities are at risk of exposure to […]
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