Pilots offer alternatives to sanitation challenges in Zambia and Kenya

In Livingstone, south of Zambia, and Malindi, on the Kenyan coast, unsafe pit emptying services create public health risks for both workers and the community. The TRANSFORM project, implemented by WSUP and Sanivation, with support from Unilever, EY and UK Aid, offered legal, reliable and healthy pit emptying alternatives in low-income areas, with pilot projects […]

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 […]

Citywide Inclusive Sanitation in Practice: Experience from Malindi, Kenya

For many African cities, offering a decent toilet to all urban residents and ensuring that all faecal waste is safely managed is an ambitious vision that will take years to achieve, unless there is a fundamental shift in the delivery of sanitation services. This shift is already happening in Kenya, where more than two thirds […]

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, […]

A Guide to Simplified Sewer Systems in Kenya

The WSUP report A Guide to Simplified Sewer Systems in Kenya describes how a pilot project in the informal settlement of Mukuru has demonstrated a cost-effective way to bring decent sanitation to some communities in Kenya: simplified sewers. New evidence shows that simplified sewer networks, which are much shallower and more flexible than traditional sewer […]

Test your water knowledge and work for 100% coverage with this WSUP game

With climate change affecting water availability all over the world, it is imperative for any local, regional, or national utility to use resources wisely. More than ever, water must be distributed in a way that serves all citizens, preserves the environment, and guarantees the financial viability of the operation. Considering the size of the challenge, […]

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, […]