Africapolis: Sanitation, urbanisation and blog conclusions

Throughout this blog, I have looked at several African cities including Dar es Salaam, Tamtave and Mombasa. All these places are witness to a dearth of sanitation provision- a crucial driver of this is urbanisation. These cities and those across the continent, have been rapidly expanding, with people moving out of rural areas at an unprecedented rate, many seeking employment and better wages. The speed of this process has significantly outstripped the capacity of urban economies to effectively provide for the migrants. Most newcomers moved into the informal settlements, therefore increasing the population in the part of the city most lacking in sanitation infrastructure(Kwiringira,2021), further stressing that infrastructure(Dodman,2017). Thus, the proportion of people meeting their basic sanitation needs has declined in many cities in recent years, Ie Lagos (Witchalls,2021).

Figure 1 Africa’s urbanisation dynamics: source

In Kampala, Uganda the population has risen by 6 million in the last 20 years, with 60% of people in informal housing, Kwiringira(2021) convincingly details how this is simply unsustainable. Toilet innovations like Iko toilet and Sanergy in Nairobi are designed to fix this and increase sanitation coverage making them fun places to be with some leisure space, and a pay-per-use system that makes the toilet fund itself(Theime,2013). However, as Cheeseman (2022) notes these innovations aren't enough, scaling them up enough to make a real difference is impossible because there isn't enough space, basically, the overcrowding that comes with urbanisation means getting land to build the toilets is unaffordable. Dealing with the sanitation crisis in cities means dealing with the related problem of internal migration and urbanisation, inherently this requires an extensive programme of changes, much more extensive than introducing new toilet technologies. To fully address Africa's sanitation problem in cities calls for ambitious, broader multifaceted interventions aimed at multiple issues like rural-urban push-pull factors, government deficits, and civil society engagement and fostering a culture of responsibility for public services(Bahri,2016).

Reflecting on the whole of my blog, this idea that any approach to addressing the sanitation crisis should be multifaceted appears apt, I knew nothing about the issue when I was starting out and now I see it's a critical and complex problem, with multilayered drivers and impacts. I have found that inadequate sanitation is at the heart of inequality and poverty in Africa and without major reforms to achieve good sanitation, there can't be real sustainable development. With the omnipresent risk of cholera or even polio outbreaks, any gains in other key development areas like children's nutrition or education are under high threat.