Abstract
Abstract The main objective of this paper is to review the literature on and compare the lifecycle costs of full sanitation chain systems in developing cities of Africa and Asia. Overall, financial cost reporting methodologies have been inconsistent and many studies only focus on capital costs or do not report cost data on desludging, transport and treatment. In addition, a comparative analysis of raw cost data across cities and countries would be of low utility, owing to the numerous determinants of costs (e.g. density, level of service) and their high sensitivity to local contexts. To circumvent this, this paper compares the cost ratios between different sanitation systems analysed in a same study. It concludes that conventional sewer systems are in most cases the most expensive sanitation options, followed, in order of cost, by sanitation systems comprising septic tanks, ventilated improved pit latrines (VIP), urine diversion dry toilets and pour-flush pit latrines. The cost of simplified sewer systems is found to be lower than both conventional sewer systems and septic tank-based systems, but lack of data prevented further comparisons with other types of sanitation solutions.
Highlights
According to the Joint Monitoring Programme (JMP) for Water Supply and Sanitation conducted by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the share of global population using an improved sanitation facility has increased from 54% in 1990 to 68% in 2015 – a net increase of 2.1 billion people
Another study of Water and Sanitation Programme (WSP) in Indonesia finds that operation and maintenance (O&M) costs of sewer-based systems are much higher, around 45% of total lifecycle costs, but are lower than for communal sewerage (65%) and faecal sludge management (FSM) systems based on shared latrines (50%), septic tanks (61%) and wet pit latrines (62%) (The World Bank b)
As a matter of fact, only a handful of studies provide comprehensive data on lifecycle costs clearly covering the full urban sanitation chain, but are in most cases limited to one city context and two or three types of sanitation systems
Summary
Global sanitation challengesAccording to the Joint Monitoring Programme (JMP) for Water Supply and Sanitation conducted by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the share of global population using an improved sanitation facility has increased from 54% in 1990 to 68% in 2015 – a net increase of 2.1 billion people (improved sanitation is defined by WHO/UNICEF as a sanitation system that hygienically separates waste from human contact). Achievements are far below the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) 2015 In terms of total population, Southern Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa are the two most affected regions, with 953 million and 695 million people without access to improved sanitation, respectively. This includes million and million urban residents (33 and 60% of their total urban population) (UNICEF & WHO )
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