A local solution to the sanitation menace and perennial shortage of clean water in urban areas in Kenya has won global admiration.
The programme involves building and upgrading of toilets and construction of small scale decentralised facility to treat human waste from dry and wet toilets through mechanical and biological treatment.
The programme, up-scaling basic sanitation for urban poor (UBSUP), implemented by the Water Fund emerged among the top 10 institutions in the prestigious 2019 United Nations public service annual award.
The programme financed by the Kenya government and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation at Sh1.46 billion beat 500 institutions globally and was the only agency in the continent to win.
It emerged top in the category of “Delivering Inclusive and Equitable Service To Leave No one Behind.” This award now places UBSUP in a better position for enhanced funding by donors.
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Under the UBSUP programme, Water Fund is working with water service providers in 22 counties to improve sanitation services and access clean and safe drinking water to 600,000 people.
The programme provides subsidy to landlords with Sh20,000 for a new toilet and Sh15,000 for rehabilitated toilets in urban areas where the poor live.
Cost efficient
The initiative has proven cost effective, with a per-capita cost of less than US$50, including construction of 15,490 toilets and over seven decentralised treatment facilities. Water Trust CEO Ismail Shaiye said the subsidy can only be paid after the landlords and house owners have completed the toilets and if they meet the given standards.
But it is the construction of a faecal sludge treatment facility where human waste is processed into cooking granules and clean water from the treatment released into the rivers that won Water Fund the prestigious award. Dubbed DTF (Decentralised Treatment Facility), the system treats the faecal sludge coming from latrines and septic tanks at a decentralised level.
“The DTF is a modular facility with a standard design that can treat up to 23m3 daily. It comprises of six modules that provide biological anaerobic treatment and run by gravity (no energy or chemical input),” said Shaiye.
The construction of a DTF requires about half an acre of land and utilises about Sh10 million, which makes it an innovative idea to address sanitation and sewerage issues in areas without a conventional sewerage system.
Shaiye said UBSUP’s objectives were to provide sustainable sanitation through provision of better toilets and safe water. “About 250,000 people have since been reached, of the targeted 400,000,” he said.
Project mirrors
Water Fund through 20 water service providers across the country is implementing the programme that includes construction of cheap and affordable sewerage systems that serves between 10,000 to 30,000 residents in small towns.
One of such successful projects he said was in Nakuru, that was transforming the town through management of its sewerage system by using human waste as the main raw material for cooking briquettes while at the same time releasing clean water into rivers.
“This project mirrors others that we have implemented in 22 other counties, where sewage water is cleaned and let into water bodies while human waste is transformed into cooking material,” said Shaiye.
He said their target was to serve smaller populations. “The cost and land for construction of the DTFs is also less and affordable. To have access to sanitation for all by 2030, DTFs may be the way to go,” he said.
The CEO said that overall objectives of the programme include improving living conditions of the urban poor and targets populations of the urban low income areas in Kenya with dire need of better sanitation.
“Through the projects we also want to enable residents practise good hygiene, develop standards for replication (scaling up), focus on plot and household level sanitation,” he said. For a WSP to benefit from the project, they should prove that they are able to cover the full sanitation value chain of where the faecal waste is contained, emptied and transported to a treatment facility and thereafter the treated waste can be reused for productive purposes.
Shaiye said in the sanitation value chain, Water Fund only provides funds for containment and treatment of the waste. Decentralised treatment facilities are funded as a full grant to be able to treat the waste generated.
“We currently have 18 different capacity DTF models that are already funded and at different stages, with 10 already complete,” he said.
Water and Sanitation Cabinet Secretary Simion chelugui said that his ministry was determined to have quality service for every Kenyan and sanitation in the urban areas was a priority in his ministry.
“We want to eventually have towns and cities that have a well laid out sewerage systems that ensure clean and habitable environments, we are are determined,” said Chelugui.
UBSUP Chelugui said would allow small urban areas to access proper sanitation and clean water all at a cheaper cost.
