Uber for sanitation

A number of my previous blogs have touched upon market based approaches and in this blog I will continue to do so with an alternative method to dealing with sanitation in Dakar, Senegal.

In the UN report on the Millennium Development Goals (2013), it states more than 89% of the population have access to a mobile phone, however only 63% have access to a safe toilet. Whilst this represents the great paradox of modernity, it has however been used to their advantage by populations in Dakar, Senegal.

A new ‘uber-like SMS service’ has been regarded as an innovative and highly successful scheme that is dealing with the sanitation crisis in Dakar. The scheme requires people to text a number, which then sends someone to come collect the excrement once their pit latrines are full. By attaching a small cost, and some profit for the business, pit latrines are being cleaned regularly and safely.

The scheme has seen great success over the past year and has driven the annual cost of collecting and emptying pit latrines from $150 to 90. In a developing country like Senegal, it is important that these market based innovations must work to drive down the cost of sanitation services, and in doing so, create effective demand for sanitation, whilst rewarding a profit at the end.  

Just like other market based approaches talked about in previous blogs, such as Sanergy, this market based approach does not only just remove the waste, it is then taken to a plant where it can be treated and turned into fertiliser, and sold for more profit. It has been evident throughout these posts that if you can attach value to sanitation, whilst also keeping it cheap for its users, you can create effective demand. If these schemes can be scaled up, sanitation targets of the updated sustainable development goals may very well become achievable.  

Despite this paradox of modernity it is evident that mobiles are paving the way for countries to achieve development. Mobile banking has mobilised thousands of marginalised people across Africa and the use of ICT has been described as the key to achieving goals set in the millennium and sustainable development goals (Hinson, 2011).

As mentioned previously in blogs, the success of these innovative market based approaches will hinge upon the ability for them to scale up and become more accessible to populations. However, these schemes tend to be more beneficial in urban settlements as opposed to rural.