The difficult living and working conditions in Mukuru, an informal settlement in Nairobi, Kenya, becomes immediately apparent as soon as you turn off the smooth main highway running east toward Mombassa. The journey becomes slower and bumpier. The large boulders and lack of tarmac suggest that the road would be best tackled in a 4x4 vehicle. But the lack of a tarmac surface does not stop the huge trucks carrying thousands of litres of petroleum, matatus transporting the mass of people and boda bodas (motorcycles) passing by at speeds that make you take a sharp intake of breath as you squeak between them and the nearest stall re-selling their favourite Premier League football shirts. Unfortunately, I’ve not found a Newcastle United shirt for sale as yet.The other noticeable difference is the type of structure where people live and work. You leave the highway and pass the clean glass fronts of the office spaces within the Sameer Business Park. Not more than 100 metres away, you move into the corrugated iron homes and businesses of the working poor. Along with the cheaper cost of building materials, the major reason for using corrugated iron is that the material is not classified as a ‘permanent structure’. Here, people are able to live and set up temporary stalls to sell a variety of wares. However, the majority of the population of Nairobi live within these informal settlements.
We make this daily trip to Mukuru because we are working with Sanergy, a social enterprise that has been improving the sanitation conditions in Mukuru since 2011. Sanergy has a strong community presence, linked to the high impact branding of their Fresh Life Toilets. They have constructed over 343 toilets, and a further 200 installations are planned for this year. This growing business requires a large amount of human resources to collect and manage the waste.
Access to homes and their latrines within Mukuru is difficult at the best of times. Overhanging power cables, puddles that turn into lagoons, narrow, busy alleys and the natural hustle of a densely populated area provide the backdrop against which the collectors wind through the maze of corrugated iron structures (housing on average up to 4 people in one room) towards the Fresh Life Toilets. The waste containers are emptied and replaced every day. This is a demanding job that isn’t made any easier when the heavy rains cause the black cotton (clay) soils to turn into a sticky obstacle course.
Access to homes and their latrines within Mukuru is difficult at the best of times. Overhanging power cables, puddles that turn into lagoons, narrow, busy alleys and the natural hustle of a densely populated area provide the backdrop against which the collectors wind through the maze of corrugated iron structures (housing on average up to 4 people in one room) towards the Fresh Life Toilets. The waste containers are emptied and replaced every day. This is a demanding job that isn’t made any easier when the heavy rains cause the black cotton (clay) soils to turn into a sticky obstacle course.
The majority of the Fresh Life Toilets are owned by local entrepreneurs (there are some at household plots and schools) who earn a viable income with a steady stream of customers who pay between 3 and 5 Ksh ($0.04 - $0.06) to use the FLT. The idea is to provide affordable and aspirational facilities which people want, and therefore will pay to use.
And this is what brings us to work with Sanergy: we both seek to develop aspirational, user-friendly technologies is a shared aim for both EAWAG and Sanergy. The evolution of our Blue Diversion Toilet has focused on developing a product that is not only affordable but comfortable and aspirational.
This is the second version of the Blue Diversion Toilet. The first version, designed and tested in April 2013 in two slums in Kampala with our partners at Makerere University, offered some compelling feedback. After interviewing 1500 households, we learned that the toilet was too high so it would not fit into current latrine structures, the foot pump proved difficult to operate for younger children and old or infirmed adults and we also were challenged by other technical glitches. These issues were tackled by the engineers at Eawag, the design team and new partners Tribecraft. The new collaboration resulted in a re-designed and re-engineered toilet. It is a smaller, more efficient system that can be retro-fitted into existing latrine structures with minimal cost.
Now, with Sanergy, we would like to find out about different issues related to the operation and functioning of the Blue Diversion Toilet within a different informal settlement. The engineers would like to know how the toilet functions during regular day to day usage. The design team would like to find out how users evaluate the features of the toilet. The business team would like to understand the willingness to pay for the new technology. Finally, the social science team would like to understand why households and local business owners decide to invest in sanitation infrastructure. The toilet has arrived and is currently being installed so we are now ready to test the toilet. Watch this space for updates on our progress over the next 3 months.
This is the second version of the Blue Diversion Toilet. The first version, designed and tested in April 2013 in two slums in Kampala with our partners at Makerere University, offered some compelling feedback. After interviewing 1500 households, we learned that the toilet was too high so it would not fit into current latrine structures, the foot pump proved difficult to operate for younger children and old or infirmed adults and we also were challenged by other technical glitches. These issues were tackled by the engineers at Eawag, the design team and new partners Tribecraft. The new collaboration resulted in a re-designed and re-engineered toilet. It is a smaller, more efficient system that can be retro-fitted into existing latrine structures with minimal cost.
Now, with Sanergy, we would like to find out about different issues related to the operation and functioning of the Blue Diversion Toilet within a different informal settlement. The engineers would like to know how the toilet functions during regular day to day usage. The design team would like to find out how users evaluate the features of the toilet. The business team would like to understand the willingness to pay for the new technology. Finally, the social science team would like to understand why households and local business owners decide to invest in sanitation infrastructure. The toilet has arrived and is currently being installed so we are now ready to test the toilet. Watch this space for updates on our progress over the next 3 months.
All photos taken by Callum Jelley