Lake Victoria nations come together for better sanitation

What is Lakewide Inclusive Sanitation (LWIS)? It is a strategy that can change the quality of life in the Lake Victoria Basin by improving essential service provision in the areas of water and sanitation. LWIS was the focus of a workshop in Kisumu, Kenya, at the end of 2022. The event brought together representatives of […]

Advances in sanitation: an emerging roadmap to regulating services

Emerging themes from the World Health Organization (WHO) drinking-water and sanitation regulators network have been gathered in an article produced by a number of experts. The text below, authored by Kate Medlicott (WHO), Yvonne Magawa (ESAWAS), Peter Mutale (NAWASCO), Chola Mbilima (NWASCO), Mohammad Said Al Hmaidi (WSRC), Massa Antoine Traore (MoESSD, Mali), Jelena Krstić (MoEP, […]

WSUP signs WASH4Work declaration for climate resilience at COP27

The WASH4Work initiative, with the participation of Water & Sanitation for the Urban Poor (WSUP), has released a declaration at the climate summit COP27 in Sharm El Sheik, Egypt, supporting actions to increase climate resilience in water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH). Having access to WASH builds people’s resilience to climate change. This can and must […]

Letter from Ghana: heart of the country, Ashanti Region must adapt to stay strong

This is the second in a new monthly series of articles, named “Letter from…”, written by WSUP’s teams in the main countries where we operate (Bangladesh, Ghana, Kenya, Mozambique, Zambia, and Madagascar). In the first week of the month, one of those teams will have an article on the WSUP’s website about life in their […]

Mind the Gap: what happens when customers cannot afford safe sanitation?

By Sam Drabble, Head of Evaluation, Research & Learning In a recent publication, WSUP explored what quality sanitation means from a public health and user experience perspective. But there is a further question which is core to achieving Citywide Inclusive Sanitation: how can quality sanitation be financed? The scale of the financing challenge for urban […]

Mind the Gap: How can we address the shortfall in urban sanitation finance?

Sanitation for all is a challenge particularly acute for low and middle-income countries. In the face of funding constraints, and a lack of political influence among those living in poorer areas, governments have tended to under-prioritise sanitation as a public investment area. Yet, countries have committed to the Sustainable Development Goal for sanitation. In doing […]

WSUP publishes 2020-2021 Annual Report

WSUP has launched its 2020-2021 Annual Report, presenting our operations and impact in the year up to March 2021. Through work in our core countries Bangladesh, Kenya, Ghana, Madagascar, Mozambique, and Zambia, plus our emerging presence in Uganda and consultancy work in Malawi and Cambodia, we were proud to improve the lives of 6.7 million […]

Valuing toilets: how customers rate the container-based sanitation experience

By Sam Drabble, Head of Evaluation, Research & Learning Container-based sanitation (CBS) offers an innovative response to the challenge of sanitation in densely populated urban settlements. This blog presents key findings from a ground-breaking study looking at customer satisfaction with Clean Team Ghana, a CBS provider owned by WSUP serving over 3200 customers in Kumasi, […]

“No Smell!” – The social benefits and cost savings of container-based sanitation systems in Ghana

Container-based sanitation (CBS) systems are acknowledged by the JMP as providing improved sanitation services. By contrast with onsite-infiltration systems, such as latrines and septic tanks, container-based systems ensure full containment of faecal waste. This Research Brief presents the results of an evaluation of user experience of CBS. The study found that CBS provides social benefits […]

Safely managed onsite sanitation: a life changer for low-income communities

Toilets: we cannot live without them. However, about half of humanity does. According to the United Nations, 3.6 billion people around the globe live without access to a toilet “that works properly”. With that in mind, the UN has focused on those in need of this very basic service on its campaign for World Toilet […]