TITLE:
Financing of sanitation services in the slums of Kampala and Dar es Salaam
AUTHORS:
John Bosco Isunju, Samuel Etajak, Beatrice Mwalwega, Richard Kimwaga, Peter Atekyereza, William Bazeyo, John C. Ssempebwa
KEYWORDS:
Slums; Sanitation; Public; Private; Financing Approaches
JOURNAL NAME:
Health,
Vol.5 No.4,
April
24,
2013
ABSTRACT:
This paper
presents an assessment of the extent and conditions under which private
financing can be a realistic approach for
sanitation in slums. It is based on a cross-sectional study comparing
two slum communities in East Africa, where 250 households from Bwaise III in Kampala,
Uganda and 379 households from Temeke in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania were
interviewed in 2010. Also, 10 key-informant interviews and 8 focus group discussions
were conducted in addition to field observations. Findings show that majority
(85%) of households used unimproved, private-shared pit latrines. These
privately owned latrines had many structural shortfalls besides poor operation
and maintenance while the public latrines provided by third-party were
structurally sound but were under-utilized in residential slum neighorhoods.
This is attributed to the presence free or at least cheaper alternatives which
the community members preferred instead of paying per-visit user-fees. For
the few who were willing to pay, willingness to pay was positively associated
with the presence of a facility User committee and having been sensitized. In
this context, a combination of these factors made cost recovery as well as
operation and maintenance very minimal. The poor status of privately owned
shared pit latrines matched the limited income levels of households. Similarly,
cost recovery for public facilities was dependent on the number of users who
were willing to pay: the more the users, the more the cost recovery. A combination
of private and public financing is thus necessary
to fund different but complementary aspects of sanitation in slums.