Tackling the sanitation taboo across urban Africa
Despite the commitment expressed by African leaders through the 2015 Ngor Declaration, to achieve universal access to adequate and sustainable sanitation and hygiene services, and eliminate open defecation by 2030 – later endorsed by the international community as part of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 6 – the sanitation ‘crisis’ is far from vanishing in African cities, particularly prejudicing women and girls, as users, care givers and sanitation providers.
We argue that rather than approaching the sanitation crisis as a site marked by a lack of facilities, infrastructure, technologies, and investments, the real question lies in understanding why urban sanitation has been historically relegated to a ‘taboo’; an unpleasant topic rarely tackled in its own right and complexity and pushed aside in favour of clean water, water-based sewage systems and water-intensive hygiene practices.
Focusing on, and working with, the fast-growing cities of Beira (Mozambique), Freetown (Sierra Leone), Mwanza (Tanzania), Abidjan (Ivory Coast), Antananarivo (Madagascar), Bukavu (DRC) and Saint-Louis (Senegal), the main purpose of OVERDUE is threefold:
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First, to reframe sanitation across urban Africa by unpacking the historical and colonial narratives that underpin the sanitation taboo. This will enable a 360 degrees perspective on what ‘equitable urban sanitation’ means (what matters, to whom, why), and on what sanitation infrastructures promise do and actually deliver across different colonial legacies and postcolonial conditions.
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Second, to produce actionable knowledge based on a re-evaluation of sanitation experiences, practices and investments across the continuum between the large-scale infrastructural investments to expand grid systems vis a vis the incremental practices and investments made by the urban poor collectively and individually to produce off-grid coping mechanisms.
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Third, to take stock of ongoing experimentation towards equitable sanitation and to foster regional dialogue and exchange. Engaging with the women and men who invest in, use, maintain, and fix sanitation infrastructure, OVERDUE generates both insights and change, bridging experiences across scales, institutions, and infrastructure.
The empirical, conceptual and methodological knowledge generated throughout the project contributes to strengthen just sanitation pathways in African cities and supports inclusive and sustainable urbanization and planning.
The programme’s funding has ended in September 2023. This page will remain active and new activities and outputs will be regularly added to our News and Publications pages.
