IWA has been running Quarterly Sanitation Dialogues through its Inclusive Urban Sanitation Initiative to advance learning and accelerate progress in sanitation. Florence Laker reports on the outcomes of the initiative’s second Africa Sanitation Dialogue.
The world remains alarmingly off track on Sustainable Development Goals 6.2 and 6.3 – to achieve universal access to adequate and equitable sanitation, and ensure safe wastewater management, respectively, by 2030. Despite progress, 3.4 billion people lacked access to safely managed sanitation in 2024. Of these, 354 million still practice open defecation.
In 2020, only one-third of the global population (2.6 billion people) used private sanitation facilities connected to sewers with treatment, while the majority depended on on-site systems. In Sub-Saharan Africa, more than 77% of people rely on non-sewered sanitation (NSS), yet utilities are rarely equipped to provide these services at scale.
To drive conversations and action, IWA convened the second Africa Sanitation Dialogue as part of its leadership of the Africa Citywide Inclusive Sanitation (CWIS) Network in 2025. Co-hosted by the Global Water Operators’ Partnerships Alliance (GWOPA) and Water & Sanitation for Urban Populations (WSUP), it explored how utilities can define and operationalise mandates for NSS to deliver inclusive urban sanitation.
Discussions focused on two areas: ‘Defining the mandate for NSS’, moderated by Shobana Srinivasan, Programme Management Officer at GWOPA; and ‘Operationalising the mandate for NSS’, moderated by Allan Nkurunziza, Senior Urban Sanitation and CWIS Specialist at the CWIS Technical Assistance Hub.
Utilities at the heart of the new urban agenda
Cecilia Andersson, Officer-in-Charge for Urban Basic Services at UN-Habitat, opened the session by framing utilities as key agents for achieving sustainable urban development, highlighting that the majority of Africa’s population still relies on non-sewered or on-site sanitation systems, making it essential to strengthen how utilities, local authorities and private operators deliver inclusive and safe services for all. Citing the New Urban Agenda, she underscored the commitments made by member states to equip utilities with the capacity to progressively eliminate inequalities in access. Implemented through UN-Habitat’s mandate, the agenda places utilities at the heart of its 2026-29 strategy, and puts sanitation at the centre of urban planning, along with housing and other basic services.
Andersson highlighted UN-Habitat’s CWIS programme, being implemented in partnership with GWOPA and WSUP, which supports reforms in countries such as Kenya and Nepal, and pointed to the Sanitation Operators’ Partnerships – multi-actor peer learning platforms hosted by GWOPA that bring together utilities, private emptiers, regulators and city authorities. She concluded that these efforts, alongside the recommendations of the 2023 Global Report on Sanitation and Wastewater Management, highlight the need to place sanitation – especially NSS – at the heart of urban planning, housing and basic service delivery for equitable and safely managed sanitation to be achieved for all.
Reframing NSS as a first-class service
Hezekiah Pireh, Water and Sanitation Team Lead at UN-Habitat, challenged the perception of NSS as a ‘second-class’ option, stressing that: “Non-sewered sanitation is not an inferior, nor temporary, second-class solution waiting to transit into a sewerage service”, but “a viable, innovative fit-for-context solution and the dominant form of sanitation in Sub-Saharan Africa”.
Drawing on the findings of the recent JMP report, which shows that access to safely managed sanitation in Sub-Saharan Africa increased modestly from 22% in 2015 to 26% in 2024, he emphasised the urgency for accelerated progress across the region.
The report also found that more than 77% of the population of Sub-Saharan Africa relies on NSS, encompassing improved facilities – such as septic tanks and pit latrines with slabs – and unimproved ones without slabs. Against this backdrop, Pireh highlighted four key policy frameworks and emerging positive trends shaping the NSS landscape on the continent:
- Regional commitments, such as the 2015 Ngor Declaration and the 2021 African Sanitation Policy Guidelines, which provide important guidance for governments on how to review, revise and develop sanitation policies and implementation strategies.
- Incremental progress that is being made in the clarification of institutional roles, the integration of NSS into utility mandates and the inclusion of the private sector within the provision ecosystem.
- Regulators stepping up to ensure affordability, service standards and accountability.
- Frameworks such as CWIS encouraging the planning of sanitation systems concurrently with housing development – particularly in informal settlements.
Housing, land and sanitation: the missing link
Joshua Maviti, Project Manager at UN-Habitat, emphasised the need for adequate housing to include sanitation, highlighting the inseparability of housing, water and energy services. However, he acknowledged that housing being delivered informally, incrementally and self-built makes the delivery of standardised sanitation highly challenging. He outlined four major barriers:
- Insecure land tenure, which deters investment and limits space for infrastructure.
- Lack of urban planning, which drives up costs and inefficiencies.
- Affordability constraints, with limited data on households’ ability to pay for NSS systems.
- Weak coordination across ministries, with housing, water and sanitation often operating in silos.
Clarifying institutional roles for NSS
Felix Twinomucunguzi, Commissioner for the Urban Water and Sewerage Services Department, Ministry of Water and Environment, Uganda, said that NSS is finally beginning to receive specific attention in urban settings in Africa, marking a departure from older policy documents that focused exclusively on sewerage systems. He said: “Institutional reform must start with a guiding sanitation policy”, adding that the current African Sanitation Policy Guidelines provide support to countries revising their policies to clearly define roles for NSS. He emphasised the importance of coordinated responsibility, where ministries provide oversight, municipalities enforce bylaws, utilities offer platforms for service provision, and private operators manage faecal sludge emptying and transportation. He said: “It’s not about utilities doing everything, but about central government, municipalities, utilities and the private sector working together.”
Voices of the urban poor – the reality of informal settlements
Yirah Conteh, National Chairperson of the Federation of the Urban and Rural Poor, Sierra Leone, drew on lived experience to paint a stark picture of sanitation exclusion in informal settlements. He explained that, in Freetown, 80% of informal settlements lack secure land tenure, suffer from poor infrastructure and planning, and most households either share unsafe toilets or resort to open defecation. He also emphasised the absence of inclusion in government budgets and decision-making processes.
Organising sanitation entrepreneurs across Africa
Kitch Bawa, Executive Secretary of the Pan-African Association of Sanitation Actors (PASA), described how PASA is uniting ‘sanipreneurs’ across 31 countries to strengthen their collective voice, visibility and capacity. He said a key prerequisite for forming a national association is formal recognition from government institutions – including ministries, regulators and utilities – paving the way for meaningful partnerships. Bawa added that utilities often lack the capacity or mandate to deliver NSS, explaining that this is where partnerships with private operators become essential to bridge the gap and scale up services. Examples include:
- Senegal – where utility private partnerships improve the service chain.
- Cameroon – where PASA members manage treatment plants under utility contracts.
- Ethiopia – where private operators provide the required capacity using utility-owned infrastructure.
Bawa explained that, through its ‘One City, One FSTP’ initiative, PASA promotes decentralised treatment plants in partnership with utilities and municipalities. He said: “These models show that collaboration with local providers is the future of NSS in Africa.”
Why utilities must lead on NSS
Sam Drabble, Director of Research and Evaluation, WSUP, highlighted a major shift in Eastern and Southern Africa, where countries such as Kenya, Zambia, Tanzania and Rwanda are increasingly mandating utilities to take responsibility for NSS. This approach – recommended in the African Sanitation Policy Guidelines – has been supported by recent research and is underpinned by strong arguments. It promotes balanced resource allocation between sewered and non-sewered systems, clarifies accountability, fosters customer-orientated services, integrates faecal sludge and wastewater management, strengthens regulatory oversight, and enables cross-subsidisation.
Previewing the forthcoming guidance from Eastern and Southern Africa Water and Sanitation and WSUP, Drabble outlined what utilities must do differently to operationalise these mandates. He said institutional change will be vital, potentially including the provision of dedicated faecal sludge management units, and added that the service delivery model will need to be defined – be that established through direct provision, private sector contracting, or licensing. He also said that utilities must engage the informal sector through progressive formalisation, and that financing should be built into strategic plans and diversified through tariffs, subsidies, resource recovery and blended finance. “This is a big shift utilities are being asked to take on, and while the rationale is clear, they must be supported to succeed,” Drabble said.
Building from zero to a sanitation department
In Malindi, Kenya, where sanitation is entirely non-sewered, Priscillah Oluoch, Head of Sanitation Services and Programmes at Malindi Water & Sewerage Company (MAWASCO), shared the utility’s bold transformation journey. For years, utilities in Kenya excelled in water service provision, but largely shied away from NSS because of limited capacity and reliance on the private sector. With Malindi being 100% reliant on NSS, MAWASCO made a decisive move to take responsibility for service delivery – starting, quite literally, from scratch. Oluoch said: “We began with nothing – no staff, no budget, just a desk.”
Recognising that sanitation could no longer be treated as peripheral, MAWASCO established a fully-fledged sanitation department, restructuring its technical division to give sanitation its own leadership, visibility and accountability. The utility’s first steps included mapping stakeholders, developing a CWIS plan and preparing a shit-flow diagram to better understand service gaps.
Sanitation was subsequently incorporated as a key area within MAWASCO’s strategic plan, complete with clear objectives and performance indicators. Financing, remained a major challenge, however, as while water services generate revenue, sanitation often does not. Through partnerships with organisations such as the World Bank, WSUP, Sanivation and the United States Agency for International Development, MAWASCO unlocked critical investments, including the construction of a new faecal sludge treatment plant (FSTP).
MAWASCO’s experience demonstrates that transformation is possible even from the most modest of beginnings.
Evolving service delivery models in Lusaka
Pride Kafwembe, Head of the Faecal Sludge Management Unit, Lusaka Water Supply and Sanitation Company (LWSC), Zambia, shared how the utility has evolved its NSS delivery models over the past decade. Initiatives include:
- A delegated model (2013-18) – Services run by community enterprises, supported by the utility’s technical expertise.
- Performance-based contracts (2019-23) – Subsidy payments to operators linked to safely delivered sludge volumes at the FSTP.
- Permitting model (2024-present) – Operators licensed by the utility, which monitors compliance city-wide.
Kafwembe said: “These models show that utilities can structure partnerships that grow over time, balancing regulation with market participation.”
Introducing Kenya’s Sanitation Development Fee
Richard Cheruiyot, Acting Chief Executive Officer, Water Services Regulatory Board, Kenya, highlighted the critical components necessary for rolling out NSS services in an enabling environment.
He explained that Kenya’s new Sanitation Development Fee (SDF) – a 5% surcharge on water bills dedicated to sanitation – is a regulatory initiative to assist utilities in advancing access to sanitation.
“This is not much in absolute terms,” he said, “but it creates a dedicated revenue stream. Consumers with water and sewer connections showed willingness to contribute, recognising the wider need for sanitation access.”
Cheruiyot emphasised the potential of the SDF to unlock co-financing, including climate funds. He said: “It’s a catalyst for utilities to shift from sewer-only approaches towards non-sewered sanitation.”
Innovation pathways for the future of NSS
Jay Bhagwan, Executive Manager of the Water Research Commission (WRC), South Africa, highlighted the role of research and innovation in reimagining sanitation. “We must avoid locking NSS into faecal sludge management alone,” he said. “The real opportunity lies in water-efficient, aspirational sanitation technologies that create value, not waste.”
WRC’s work focuses on reinventing toilets, building industry-driven models and promoting ‘sanitation-sensitive design’ as a shift from city-managed to city-enabled systems.
Bhagwan concluded: “The future is about innovation – toilets that bring dignity, are climate-resilient and water-efficient, and generate products – and institutions designed to scale them.”
Closing reflections
Cecilia Andersson closed the session by emphasising the importance of partnerships.
“What excites me,” she said, “is seeing local governments, communities, utilities and regulators coming together. This session has shown that non-sewered sanitation is the dominant model for Africa – the future lies in collaboration, policy reform and innovation.”
More information
To watch the Africa Sanitation Dialogue recording (and access past webinars), visit: www.youtube.com/@InternationalWaterAssociation. For more information about the Africa Sanitation Dialogues, contact Florence.laker@iwahq.org.
Key takeaways from IWA’s second Africa Sanitation Dialogue
- Non-sewered sanitation (NSS) is not an inferior, stop-gap service. With more than 77% of people in Sub-Saharan Africa relying on it, NSS must be integrated into all sanitation planning as a dignified, inclusive, safe and sustainable solution, and not treated as a transitional sewerage service.
- Housing and sanitation are inseparable. Adequate housing must include sanitation alongside water, solid waste management and electricity. Barriers such as land tenure, challenging topography and affordability must be addressed through integrated and inclusive planning that integrates sanitation in housing, and programmes for upgrading informal settlements.
- Institutional clarity is critical. Clear policies, mandates, regulations and coordination mechanisms are crucial. Policies must be revised and implemented to reflect realities on the ground.
- Utilities must lead, but not alone. Mandates for NSS require strong partnerships with private operators, communities and regulators, with worker safety – and recognition and regulation of pit emptiers – treated as priorities.
- Learning from success. MAWASCO (Kenya) demonstrates the impact of a dedicated sanitation department, strong leadership, clear budgets and stakeholder mapping, while LWSC (Zambia) shows how structured engagement with private operators can evolve over time.
- Dedicated financing is emerging. Kenya’s 5% Sanitation Development Fee on water bills is a significant step towards leveraging cross-subsidies and ensuring financial sustainability for NSS.
- Innovation will shape the future. Water-efficient, climate-resilient and sanitation-sensitive technologies, supported by industry-driven models, are redefining the future of NSS.
- Dialogue must continue. Speakers and participants called for more regular, interactive, multi-actor dialogues to accelerate peer learning and drive sector transformation.
The author:
Florence Laker is Senior Officer, Inclusive Urban Sanitation, IWA
