The female-friendly guide written by WaterAid, UNICEF and WSUP, is designed primarily for use by local authorities in towns and cities who are in charge of public and community toilets. It’s also useful for national governments, public and private service providers, NGOs, donors and civil society organisations who play a role in delivering these services.

The guide explains why toilets must be female-friendly, before detailing the essential and desirable features needed to make them so. It also suggests ways to increase gender sensitivity in town planning on sanitation.

The guide draws the recommendations and practical steps from existing literature, expert opinion and analysis of pioneering experiences from around the world.

A guide to strengthening the enabling environment for faecal sludge management

Experience from Bangladesh, Kenya and Zambia

This Guide presents an introduction to conceptualising and strengthening the enabling environment for faecal sludge management (FSM) services in low-income urban areas.

It is based on WSUP’s experience working with Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to develop market-based solutions for on-site sanitation services in the cities of Dhaka and Chittagong (Bangladesh), Kisumu (Kenya) and Lusaka (Zambia).

Why is FSM so important?

FSM is the process by which faecal sludge is contained, collected, transported, treated and then safely disposed of or reused. 2.7 billion (38%) people around the world are dependent on on-site sanitation facilities like pit latrines and septic tanks, which contain and partially treat faecal sludge on-site (as opposed to centralised systems like sewers that remove waste from households and transport it to treatment facilities).

In light of the vast numbers of people who depend on on-site sanitation, there is no serious prospect of achieving Sustainable Development Goal 6 without the development of reliable, safe FSM systems covering the full sanitation chain.

Accordingly, FSM is now a major focus for governments and development organisations, particularly in urban and urbanising areas where constructing sewer networks is expensive and unrealistic in the medium-term (most low-income communities or informal settlements fall into this category); and where there is little space available to simply cover full pits and dig new ones.

Achieving citywide sanitation in such locations typically requires both on-site and sewered systems and may also include non-centralised small bore/condominial sewer systems.

While non-sewered (on-site) facilities sequester harmful waste from direct human contact (if properly constructed and maintained), how that waste is dealt with beyond those pits and tanks is too often a secondary consideration.

What do we mean by the enabling environment, and why this focus?

The market for on-site sanitation products and services will only thrive if it is supported by strong financial and institutional frameworks, complete with clear policies, regulations, technical assistance and political buy-in.

It is factors like these that comprise the enabling environment.

The report provides insights into seven components for the enabling environment:

Institutional mandates

Regulatory effectiveness

Service provider capacity

Private sector enablement

Infrastructure and technology

Affordability and consumer willingness to pay

Consumer behaviour

This guide has been developed as a resource for water utilities to support implementation of Non-Revenue Water (NRW) reduction programmes.

It covers what NRW is and why it matters, before providing systemic guidelines that can be adopted by utility managers, engineers and operations staff to plan and implement a phased, sustainable NRW programme.

A recent Practice Note describing a successful programme undertaken in Madagascar is also available. Read it now.

Este guia foi desenvolvido como um recurso para utilitários de água para apoiar a implementação de programas de redução de água não-receita (NRW). Abrange o que é NRW e por que isso importa, antes de fornecer diretrizes sistêmicas que podem ser adotadas por gerentes de serviços públicos, engenheiros e pessoal de operações para planejar e implementar um programa NRW faseado e sustentável.

Providing improved water supply to low-income urban communities is a difficult challenge faced by water utilities throughout Africa and Asia.

This guide provides an introduction to available options for serving these communities.

The guide draws on sector experience in general, and more particularly on WSUP’s extensive experience of implementing urban WASH programmes in sub-Saharan Africa and elsewhere.

What is this guide?

The guide provides an introduction to urban WASH programming: how to design and implement a pro-poor urban water, sanitation and hygiene programme. The recommendations are drawn primarily from WSUP’s extensive experience in sub-Saharan Africa and elsewhere.

Who is this guide for?

This guide is primarily designed for WASH professionals working in governments, development agencies, funding agencies or civil society organisations. It will also be useful for professionals working for service providers including water utilities, local authorities and in the private sector.

QUE CONTIENT CE GUIDE ?
Ce guide se veut une introduction à l’élaboration de programmes EHA en milieu urbain : il porte sur l’élaboration et la mise en oeuvre des programmes EHA en faveur des plus démunis.

À QUI CE GUIDE S’ADRESSE-T-IL ?
Ce guide s’adresse avant tout aux professionnels EHA qui travaillent au sein d’un gouvernement, d’un organisme d’aide du développement, d’un organisme de financement ou d’une organisation de la société civile. Il sera également utile aux professionnels travaillant pour les prestataires de services, notamment aux compagnies de distribution d’eau, aux autorités locales et au secteur privé.