Attaching value to sanitation

Over the course of terms I have assessed a number of different solutions to the sanitation crisis in Africa. It is evident that there are a number of market-based approaches paving the way for sanitation development. Previous blogs have looked at Sanergy, Uber for Poo and micro finance solutions to sanitation in Africa.

It has become clear, that the key to successful sanitation lies within the value chain. By attaching value to all parts of the sanitation chain, both Sanergy and Uber for Poo provided further value to faecal sludge, whilst providing clean and safe sanitation. Market based solutions will be the future of sanitation in Africa.

Diener et al (2014) identified a range of different uses for faecal sludge, attaching value to sanitation. They found not only can faecal sludge be used as fertiliser, but there are many other great uses such as biogas and the use of sludge in building materials.

Previous studies have looked at the value of faecal sludge when repurposed as fertiliser, however, figure 1 illustrates how faecal sludge can be repurposed in a number of different ways, all with varying economic value in different cities across Africa. On average, the use of faecal sludge as soil conditioner (fertiliser) had the lowest value attached.

Figure 1: Value attached to products from faecal sludge across Africa.

Current innovative sanitation projects have overlooked these other potential uses of faecal sludge.

Despite a cry for universal sanitation by many, it is important that sanitation solutions are not set up universally. It is evident that different cities across Africa hold different value to certain products produced from faecal sludge; therefore context is central to success.

The findings of Diener et al (2014) are very interesting and evidence the potential for sanitation projects to be developed across Africa if faecal sludge is repurposed in the most valued manor. Local government, policy makers and private sector firms should use these findings to increase the potential of sanitation projects, and to scale up operations from a regional scale, to a national scale.

As mentioned in previous blogs, scaling up sanitation projects presents the biggest challenge. However if it can be overcome, the future of sanitation in Africa will be bright.