…It comes out of a system. This is not just a system of infrastructure but also that of people, institutions and politics which manage it.
Take a look at how water flows through cities, and how different parts of the system interact to affect whether residents living in the poorest parts of a city can get access to clean, safe, water.
Five myths are stopping investors, agencies and policymakers from properly addressing the inadequate access to essential water and sanitation services in cities across Africa and South Asia. Read our new report, Running Dry.
“Why even the poorest should pay for water” – our CEO debunks the myth of free water, in the Economist Intelligent Unit.
“Proper structures can tackle water, sanitation challenges” – Kenya’s Business Today.
WSUP has been working to catalyse the Ghanaian market for improved sanitation through introducing and selling affordable and desirable products. While it sounds simple, efforts to sell various sanitation products in Ga West (in Greater Accra) and Kumasi were thwarted by overarching issues that prevented potential customers from purchasing and installing sanitation products in their […]
Slow uptake of household toilets in urban Ghana is due to several factors, including (but not limited to) cost which is a key focus of stakeholders. Collating data on the costs of constructing toilets in Kumasi, this Practice Note provides points of comparison for others seeking to build toilets in Ghana and beyond. Ghana has […]
Only 15% of Ghanaians use an improved household toilet, while nearly a quarter lack access to any household or shared facility. Inability to obtain finance is often cited as a key barrier. Financial institutions offer toilet loans to help sanitation customers and providers bridge the gap, but uptake is low and businesses face wider challenges […]
WSUP has identified five myths which are stopping investors, agencies and policymakers from properly addressing the inadequate access to essential water and sanitation services in cities across Africa and South Asia. Myth one: Struggling utilities are unable to serve the poorest The reality: Much-maligned, publicly owned utilities can deliver services for the poorest communities. […]
Experience from SHARE, REACH and the Urban Sanitation Research Initiative Delivering high-quality research can be challenging. But achieving research uptake – impact on policy or other aspects of the “real world” – is enormously challenging. In low-income contexts the barriers to achieving change can seem profound, in view of economic and capacity limitations. In fact, […]
Lead author: Aquaya Institute. In Kisumu, Kenya, the majority of households rely on pit latrines, though the servicing of these latrines is largely unsafe. This Brief assesses the market potential to expand safe fecal waste emptying services to low-income areas in Kisumu. Price is the largest barrier for this population to access safe emptying services, […]
Chazanga Water Trust has provided an affordable, accessible and safe pit-emptying service to low-income customers in Lusaka since August 2014, the result of a partnership between Lusaka Water and Sewerage Company (LWSC) and WSUP. This Practice Note explains the process behind LWSC’s recent price adjustment for its FSM service in Chazanga, and situates that within […]
This Topic Brief presents WSUP’s experience supporting sanitation businesses oriented towards low-income customers in five cities. Each case study highlights changes to the business model or enabling environment with the potential to trigger business growth. In WSUP’s experience, the success of sanitation businesses depends on factors internal to the business as well as those external, […]
Service providers involved in faecal sludge management are held back by a lack of current data on their customer base, operating standards and levels of service. Pula, a mobile app, was developed to address this data gap. This publication shares the learning from a 3-year process of developing a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) for the […]
This Practice Note describes the design process behind development of a mobile app, Pula, inspired by GV’s Design Sprint method. Pula aims to support vacuum tankers with their business while providing urban planners with data about sanitation in the city. See also: Integrating mobile tech into sanitation services: insights from Pula
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