Assessing Sanitary Mixtures in East African Cities

163 Pages·2012·3.88 MB·English

by  Sammy C. Letema

Assessing sanitary
mixtures in
East African cities
Sammy C. Letema
Environmental Policy
Series
Volume 6
Assessing sanitary mixtures in East
African cities

Assessing sanitary mixtures in East
African cities
Sammy C. Letema
Environmental Policy Series – Volume 6
Wageningen Academic 
P u b l i s h e r s
Buy a print copy of this book at
www.WageningenAcademic.com/EPS-06
The research for this PhD thesis was performed
at the sub-department of Environmental
Technology (Prof Jules B. van Lier, promotor)
in cooperation with the Environmental Policy
Group (dr Bas van Vliet, co-promotor) at
Wageningen University.
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ISBN: 978-90-8686-215-3 www.WageningenAcademic.com
e-ISBN: 978-90-8686-769-1 [email protected]
DOI: 10.3920/978-90-8686-769-1
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Assessing sanitary mixtures in East African cities 7
Preface
Many intervention measures have been sought in the past to address sanitation challenges, but
largely the approaches have been characterised by a clash between centralised and a decentralised
approach. Sustainability assessment has also been characterized by a dualistic approach, between
the techno-centric and the eco-centric. The dualistic dichotomy in sanitary provision is often
reduced to competition between the proponents, none of them providing a panacea for solving
complex sanitary challenges. Such opposing views are often simplistic and not in tandem with the
existing multiple sanitary options and service providers in East African cities, which defy such
classification. This thesis, therefore, provides the theoretical and empirical basis for a third way
of classifying and assessing the multiple technical and institutional options to sanitary provision.
This novel assessment approach called ‘modernised mixtures’ is used in this thesis as a tool for
conceptualising, assessing and improving sanitary provision in East African cities. The approach is
an inclusive way of assessing sanitary mixtures, which benefits decision making among imperfect
options.
The research described in this thesis was financially supported by Partnership Research on
Viable Urban Environmental Infrastructure Development in East Africa (PROVIDE), a project
funded by Interdisciplinary Research and Education Fund (INREF), Wageningen University, The
Netherlands.
I thank the PROVIDE team, Spaargaren, Oosterveer and van Buuren, who came to East Africa
in 2006, for showing confidence and picking me as a PhD candidate under PROVIDE project.
I am grateful to Jules van Lier, my promoter, for his support and flexibility in the direction of
research and write up of the thesis. My sincere gratitude goes to my co-promoter, Bas van Vliet,
for his guidance, belief and inspiration. My appreciation goes to Joost van Buuren for his technical
advice and sharing experiences.
My appreciation goes to administrators Corry Rothuizen of Environmental Policy and Liesbeth
Kesaulya of Environmental Technology for their administrative and logistical support during my
entire PhD period.
My appreciation to my wife Elizabeth and children for their moral support and deep
understanding when I was away most of the time.
My appreciation also goes to my PROVIDE colleagues: Aisa, Christine, Fredrick, Judith,
Mesharch, Tobias, and Richard, and PROVIDE affiliate, Leah. Being with you people made my
stay in Wageningen home away from home.
During the course of my stay in Wageningen I made great friends: Gabor and Lina
(Environmental Technology), Marjanneke, Dorien, Carolina, Jennifer, Elizabeth, Natapol, Kim,
Harry and Hilde (Environmental Policy), Maren (Development Economics), Bing (Logistics),
Nelly (Socio-Spatial Analysis) and Kibor (Plant Sciences). The get-together, dinners and lunches
are highly appreciated. Marjanneke, I will always remember the Fellowship of the Movies and
Nelly your company to church and bicycle rides.

Assessing sanitary mixtures in East African cities 9
Table of contents
Preface 7
Abbreviations 13
Chapter 1.
Introduction 15
1.1 Background 15
1.2 Urbanisation and sanitation provision status in East Africa 17
1.3 Variety of sanitary scales and institutional arrangements 18
1.4 Research objectives and questions 19
1.5 Operationalization, limitations and methodology 20
1.6 Thesis structure 21
Chapter 2.
Modernised sanitary mixtures: a paradigm shift in sanitary provision 23
2.1 Introduction 23
2.2 Modernisation and modern infrastructural ideal 23
2.3 Spatial-technical dimensions of sanitary provision 24
2.3.1 Paradigms of centralisation and decentralisation 24
2.3.2 Scale 27
2.3.3 Flows 28
2.3.4 Mixed sanitary solutions 28
2.4 Institutional dimensions of sanitary provision 29
2.4.1 Public utility provision 29
2.4.2 Private utility provision 30
2.4.3 Voluntary sector utility provision 31
2.4.4 Partnership utility provision 31
2.4.5 End-user participation 33
2.5 Modernised sanitary mixtures as a flexible mix of technical and institutional
dimensions 34
2.5.1 The MM approach 34
2.5.2 The MM dimensions 34
2.5.3 Conceptual framework 35
2.5.4 Assessment scales 36
2.5.5 Mapping sanitary configurations 38
2.6 Conclusion 39