The seductive simple ‘solutions’ of social enterprise and circular economy hide more complex political dynamics in providing safely managed sanitation for all.
The ubiquitous contemporary notion of global challenges often sits side by side with the search for grand solutions. Typically, social entrepreneurs occupy a heroic space in these discussions, offering seemingly magical possibilities to address intractable and complex problems of extending basic services. The provision of safely-managed sanitation in rapidly growing informal settlements is one such significant challenge. Container-based sanitation (CBS) has gained prominence in the sanitation world as a potential solution. Essentially, CBS is a system which provides a means of safely capturing, collecting, transporting and processing human faeces into products such as fuel pellets or fertiliser for agriculture. Some very successful and well-funded social enterprises have shown these systems to work on a small scale. Yet the challenge of scaling up such systems to solve the grand challenge remains elusive. A paper published recently from the GCRF Scaling up Off-grid Sanitation project explores why through fieldwork in Haiti, Peru, Kenya and South Africa.
The only system in this research that has scaled up to a meaningful degree is in Cape Town, South Africa where the City of Cape Town provides a free at the point of use CBS service to residents of informal settlements at a scale of around 40000 CBS units. However, the legacy of apartheid remains unresolved. Of the container-based solutions beneficiaries, a majority are those belonging to historically marginalised groups who, during apartheid, relied on what was known as the bucket system of toilets, and the CBS units are seen by many as ‘better but not good enough’. But crucially, the scaling up of this system rests in the capability of the local government to marshal resources and systems.
The other cases in this research, Nairobi, Lima and Cap-Haitien show different configurations of social enterprise driven CBS, and all suffer from similar barriers to scaling-up: dependency on aid funding, institutional capability of local stakeholders and a failure of the circular economy in practice.
Consequential of a pervasive colonial history, sanitation inequality proves a significant issue in Nairobi. As a neo-liberal system with deeply fragmented authorities across departments and jurisdictions, private and third-sector interests are implored to address service deficiencies. Pro-market aid-driven initiatives have incentivised non-state actors to provide sanitation services, but this has ultimately resulted in the marginalisation of local government. The NGO ‘Sanergy’ is a prominent agent of container-based solutions in Nairobi but is heavily dependent on aid funding. With their California style office in an industrial estate in Nairobi, they spin a sophisticated story of success at international gatherings, but even they have realised that the circular economy finances do not add up and they must look for scaling up in partnership with government resourcing.
A similar situation is revealed in Lima, where colonial legacies have resulted in fractured local authority with limited agency. Despite affluent communities having full access to formal sanitation, approximately 43% of individuals belonging to the poorest populations are connected to sanitation infrastructure, and while several NGOs have attempted to address the disparity, they encounter obstacles posed by bureaucratic complexity and mismanagement. Sanima is the sole provider of container-based solutions in the city. However, like Sanergy, Sanima is also subsided by external aid funding and operates on a small scale. Unlike Sanergy, the founder and staff of Sanima are critically self-reflective about the difficulties of trying to address this grand challenge through social enterprise.
In Cap-Haitien, access to modern sanitation has decreased from 26% in 1990 to 17% in 2010, as a result of the 2010 earthquake, and interference from the US which has contributed heavily to Haiti’s destitution. Due to minimal spending in public services, non-state actors have formed a parastate, whereby local governments have lost authority to NGOs and private interests. SOIL, a CBS provider, operates the only safely managed off-grid sanitation in the country, and is heavily committed to working with government authorities. However, the realities of funding and system costs mean that SOIL also remains dependent on aid subsidy. Founder and CEO of SOIL Sasha Kramer is one of the authors of the paper and argues passionately for a realistic debate on the limits of the social enterprise model.
In theory, CBS provides a viable alternative to those without sewered sanitation where governments fail to keep pace with growing populations. However, scaling up access to such systems is not being achieved through social enterprise. The ‘market’ does not work. This is because market-based approaches ignore historical inequalities and bypass the responsibility and capability of local and national state actors. They become a convenient and simplistic way to appear to be doing something about a grand challenge. Yet when the founders and leaders of some of these organisations are saying that the model does not work, it is time for a more honest and realistic conversation about untangling the complex politics of responsibility for providing safely managed sanitation for all.
Written by Kayleigh O’Brien & Anna Mdee