"Towards inclusive, green city sanitation for Lusaka – achievements and way forward"

The Climate Friendly Sanitation (CFS) project provided support to stakeholders to develop on-site sanitation (OSS) and safe fecal sludge management (FSM) in Lusaka, Zambia. The project started in December 2016 and was implemented by GIZ on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development in the context of the large, multi-donor Lusaka Sanitation Program (LSP).

The report "Towards inclusive, green city sanitation for Lusaka - achievements and way forward" reflects on the progress and impact of the CFS activities, including the deployment of the SaniPath Tool in four neighborhoods of Lusaka. The deployment was conducted in close collaboration with Lusaka City Council (LCC) and GIZ to inform risk-basked WASH interventions. LCC managed the data collection process, including collecting environmental samples from suspected contamination pathways, facilitating surveys, and collaborating with local laboratories. The recent report highlights the impact of using the SaniPath Tool in Lusaka.

"With the information generated by the SaniPath tool, LCC is already working from a more informed perspective. Inspections are becoming risk-based. SaniPath outputs have also proved useful for public education messaging: residents are more receptive to appeals backed by hard evidence."

Virtual launch of publication:

FSM5 & AfricaSan5 Conference: Public Health Data in Sanitation Planning Workshop

Workshop convened by: Emory University Center for Global Safe WASH, Lusaka City Council, Kampala Capital City Authority, Makerere University School of Public Health, icddr,b, TREND Ghana, Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly, World Bank

Workshop Background

Recent trends in urbanization and changing population dynamics have led to a dramatic rise in populations living in urban areas throughout Africa and Asia. These urbanizing populations settle in areas in which water, sanitation and hygiene systems are already overburdened, and many live in unplanned or illegal urban or peri-urban settlements. Rapid urbanization has outpaced sanitation services and fecal sludge management (FSM) in many cities in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa leading to gaps in FSM along the sanitation value chain. Shit Flow Diagrams have highlighted the points where unsafely-managed fecal waste enters the environment, but equally important is understanding where this waste ends up and the public health risks associated with its unsafe management. Sanitation decision-makers currently have a number of tools at their disposal to increase the availability and accessibility of data to support evidence-based decision-making. However, there are few opportunities to share the results of these tools and how they have been, and can be, used to influence sanitation investment, policies, and decision -making practices. This workshop allowed participants to learn about the approaches, successes, and challenges of organizations who aimed to utilize public health data in urban sanitation decision-making and to engage with fellow participants on ways to improve evidence-based decision-making in the sanitation sector. The convening organizations have all utilized the SaniPath Exposure Assessment Tool to understand exposure to fecal contamination in urban and peri-urban areas and shared their experience using this tool in the framework of factors that influence decision-making.

Wordcloud of discussion topics from workshop notes

Access Workshop Presentations Here Access Workshop Report Here