The UN-Habitat K-WATSAN project in Soweto East aimed to improve WASH by means of community participation, the formation of management committees, and the construction of seven sanitation blocks and a road. The road, which fostered commerce, and sanitation blocks reduced ‘flying toilets’ and 55.7 per cent of 275 residents said they had ‘much better’ conditions in a 2012 survey. Nevertheless, governance and design hurdles such as inadequate consultation and construction delays caused by Kibera’s density, are challenges. As in the Gatwekera Total Sanitation and Hygiene Access (TOSHA) Network’s biocentres, which have biodigesters and toilets that are accessible, the design is innovative. Participatory design, however, has also been used in the Kounkuey Design Initiative (KDI) to transform flood prona Bangaloreinto community spaces with toilets and water vending points as well. However, these projects have scalability issues around donor funding & labour, and dependence on integration into city wide plan to have an impact. Data from existing research are helpful but still leave several gaps unexplained.
Interventions such as K-WATSAN are under studied in terms of their long-term sustainability, especially their dependence on external funding. Climate resilient WASH systems are necessary for Kibera’s flood vulnerability, but the area has not been explored. Why are there gender specific impacts such as woman and girl safety and burden of time? Such granularity and real time WASH data is also needed to target specific interventions. To improve WASH access in Kibera, both governance and design issues need to be addressed. What it’s not is building more toilets or water points — it’s about developing a system in which communities actually do have a say, a more appropriate approach to infrastructure planning, as well as an ongoing measure to help both implement and increase this work. The lesson is that we can learn from what’s already been done and fill in the gaps in our knowledge to try to get to a future where everybody in Kibera has the water and sanitation they need to live healthy dignified lives.
