Article written by Jim Wright
For decades, Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) have been grouped together for programmatic delivery, evaluation and monitoring and at conferences. This reflects the close inter-connections between the three sectors, which were first captured in the so-called F-Diagram by a World Health Organisation publication in 1958. The Fs represent faecal-oral transmission pathways from Faeces: Fingers, Flies, Fluids, and Foods, sometimes with Fields or the hard surfaced objects known as Fomites also included.
Prompted by field experiences in low-income urban neighbourhoods, the Water and Waste project team have been thinking closely about the many linkages between WASH and solid waste management. As shown in the diagram above, there are many synergies between solid waste management and WASH (click on some of the links shown in the diagram to find out more about these interactions). For example, if you can deliver waste collection services to a community, then that could help cut dumping of solid waste into pit latrines or uncollected waste blocking storm-drains causing flooding of latrines. There are also trade-off situations, where fixing a WASH service delivery challenge risks creating a solid waste challenge. In many cities around the world, for example, consumption of packaged water (sold in bottles or bags) has grown rapidly, as consumers struggle with piped water systems that are prone to contamination or are not available 24/7. Whilst packaged water is often less contaminated than piped water, the plastic bottles or bags generated can enter the environment if communities lack waste services. Much the same could be said for the growth in the disposable diaper as a convenient form of urban sanitation for young children.
Could greater integration of solid waste management into WASH help address service delivery challenges? Fundamentally, many urban service chains involve informal service providers either moving material out of communities (as with human or solid waste), or into communities (as with water). Innovative models have been developed for supporting these service chains. For example, in Water and Waste, JOOUST and VIRED have studied Kisumu’s Delegated Management Model, which incorporates small-scale businesses into water service delivery. Greater integration of WASH and solid waste management could help such innovations spread between service delivery chains, or provide opportunities for joined-up provision of multiple services. Indeed, our analyses suggest that many of the urban neighbourhoods that lack adequate WASH services also lack solid waste collection. Tackling lack of services may thus call for dialogue with same community groups and leaders for waste as it does for WASH. Finally, as concern over micro-plastics entering the environment grows, many groups are promoting Extended Producer Responsibility – an approach where manufacturers take responsibility for the environmental impacts of their products. Given the growing consumption of commodities like water in plastic bottles or bags and disposable diapers, a joining up solid waste with WASH would be a logical step towards Extended Producer Responsibility
Waste besides the Odawna River and Korle Lagoon, Accra