Students sweeping a school sanitation facility, Madagascar

Making progress on sanitation policy: AfricaSan6

How can policy initiatives best accelerate the expansion of sanitation services and help people improve their hygiene practices across Africa? That was one of the questions WSUP and the Eastern and Southern Africa Water and Sanitation (ESAWAS) Regulators Association aimed to address during AfricaSan, the 6th African Conference on Sanitation & Hygiene. WSUP and ESAWAS […]

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 […]

Integrate with wider city resilience: collaboration with other areas is crucial

This is the fourth blog in a series exploring four recommendations from WSUP’s new report, The missing link in climate adaptation, released ahead of COP26. Read the full report here: www.wsup.com/the-missing-link  Recommendation four: Integrate with wider city resilience For water and sanitation, climate change is not only about reducing the emissions of carbon into the Earth’s atmosphere. […]

Strengthen systems: foundations for climate resilience in the long term

This is the third blog in a series exploring four recommendations from WSUP’s new report, The missing link in climate adaptation, released ahead of COP26. Read the full report here: www.wsup.com/the-missing-link Recommendation three: Strengthen systems When we think of climate-resilient water and sanitation, many of us will picture infrastructure. We might think of piped water and […]

Integrated Slum Upgrading: details and learnings from four experiences in Africa

Projects executed in Africa in the past few years have helped WSUP better understand the connection between water and sanitation issues and other challenges faced by residents of low-income urban areas. Our report “Integrated Slum Upgrading”, first released in May 2021, indicates a clear path towards successful outcomes: solutions to the most urgent problems in […]

Building resilience faster: Join us for World Water Week 2021

How can water help us tackle the world’s greatest challenges and build resilient cities faster? Join us virtually for four sessions during the week to find out. As the world faces multiple challenges from increasing urban populations to climate change and with the SDG deadline fast approaching, finding ways to improve the resilience of cities […]

Integrated Slum Upgrading: how can we link water and sanitation with wider urban development?

Marginalised urban communities are often characterised by three things: complexity, interdependence of challenges, and constant evolution. The sheer numbers of people living close together in poorly planned communities can make improving the quality of life extremely difficult. The rapid rate of urbanisation – by 2050, the number of people living in African cities will double […]

When pits fill up: Supply and demand for safe pit-emptying services in Kisumu, Kenya

Improving sanitation conditions in low-income communities is a major challenge in rapidly growing cities of the developing world. To determine the degree through which market forces can promote safe fecal sludge removal in low-income neighbourhoods of Kisumu, Kenya, this research compared household willingness-to-pay for formal pit emptying services with the prices charged by service providers. […]

CS Water Inspects handwashing points

How can the global WASH sector respond better in future crises?

By Kariuki Mugo, Director of WASH Sector Support The global WASH sector has laudably responded to the Covid-19 pandemic. Most of the actions have been in supporting the public health domain in handwashing with soap by way of ensuring adequate water is available in most households. There has also been a great deal of investment […]

Handwashing station in Accra, Ghana

Covid-19 and crowded urban settlements: how can we stop the spread?

By Sam Drabble, Acting Head of Evaluation, Research & Learning For the one billion people living in informal urban settlements in the Global South, the spread of coronavirus poses an imminent threat that could prove catastrophic. A range of factors makes transmission of the virus in these contexts more likely, and the potential impacts even […]