Abstract
Improving sanitation conditions in low-income communities is a major challenge for rapidly growing cities of the developing world. The expenses and logistical difficulties of extending sewerage infrastructure have focused increasing attention on the requirements for safe and cost-effective fecal sludge management services. These services, which are primarily provided by the private sector, include the collection and treatment of fecal waste from latrine pits and septic tanks. To determine the degree to which market forces can promote safe fecal sludge removal in low-income neighborhoods of Kisumu, Kenya, we compared household willingness-to-pay for formal pit emptying with the prices charged by service providers. Through surveys of 942 households and a real-money voucher trial with 646 households, we found that stated and revealed demand for formal emptying services were both low, with less than 20% of households willing to pay full market prices. Our results suggest that improving fecal sludge management in these neighborhoods via the private sector will require large subsides, ranging from 55.1-81.4 million KES (551,000-814,000 USD) annually, to address the gap between willingness-to-pay and market prices. Raising and administering subsidies of this scale will require the development of a city-wide sanitation master plan that includes investment, management, and regulatory procedures for fecal sludge management. In the absence of government investment and coordination, it is unlikely that the private sector will address safe sanitation needs in low-income areas of Kisumu.
Highlights
Residents of low-income, urban settlements in developing countries generally do not have access to formal, regulated fecal sludge management (FSM) services, which primarily target middle- and high-income households that can afford market prices [1]
20% of households are connected to the sewerage network that transports waste to two treatment facilities operated by the local utility, Kisumu Water and Sewerage Company (KIWASCO) [21]
We interviewed multiple stakeholders in Kisumu’s sanitation sector using a ‘snowball’ method [23], whereby we started with contacts at Water and Sanitation for the Urban Poor (WSUP), an international non-governmental (NGO) organization implementing programs in Kisumu, and KIWASCO who subsequently referred us to other stakeholders
Summary
Residents of low-income, urban settlements in developing countries generally do not have access to formal, regulated fecal sludge management (FSM) services, which primarily target middle- and high-income households that can afford market prices [1]. FSM in poor neighborhoods commonly includes unsafe practices, including the employment of informal manual emptiers who remove fecal sludge by hand and dispose of it in the surrounding environment. These practices pose environmental and health risks to households and emptiers, who often operate without proper equipment, training, or oversight [2,3,4]. The agreement was funded under the Urban Sanitation Research Initiative managed by WSUP and supported by UK Aid from the UK government
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