The Key to Sustainable Sanitation and Development?

Over the past weeks we've explored a range of sanitation issues affecting the development of (urban) SSA, including colonial legacies, intra-urban inequalities, gendered inequalities, and climate change, as well as, potential solutions such as EcoSan and Peepoo. So, for my final post I think it’s only right that I present what I believe to be the key to securing sustainable sanitation solutions in SSA: a shift towards a ‘systems thinking approach’ (STA) (Adali, 2020). 

Figure 1. Diagram depicting the fundamental characteristics of a systems thinker. Source: The Social Change Agency. 

Clearly, addressing the sanitation crisis in SSA is a complex issue, which has long been dominated by colonial power dynamics, and collaboration among diverse stakeholders is necessary to disrupt current WASH strategies, and drive innovation. Critically, collaboration must involve inclusive community engagement - this is implicit within a STA, which calls for an openness to different ways of knowing (as shown in figure 1), and acknowledges the ‘incomprehensible’, such as local, culturally dictated water and sanitation practices, as part of the solution. 

Systems thinking also advocates for the establishment of inclusive communication platforms, which are attentive to the needs of marginalised communities. This would not only encourage power-sharing, and develop horizontal leadership, but would also make SSA communities, scholarly infrastructures, and individuals, active agents of change. This is crucial for the sustainability of WASH projects across SSA, as exemplified by my post on Cape Town, and would contribute to the decolonisation of knowledge, and the WASH sector (discussed previously). 

Furthermore, a STA critically acknowledges that there are often multiple interventions to a problem. Indeed, this is the conclusion I also reached in my discussion of the Peepoo. A STA also recognises that the champion interventions of one locality may not work elsewhere, as exemplified by EcoSan, and would therefore contribute to the elimination of the one-size-fits-all mentality which permeates the WASH sector. 

A key component of the STA that stands out to me, is the emphasis on ‘experimenting regularly’: ‘continuously reflecting, experimenting, learning’ (shown in figure 1). This acknowledges that culture is not stagnant, rather, communities are constantly shaping, and being shaped by sanitation practices and WASH interventions, and we must experiment with different solutions to ensure the best fit. On a larger scale, the need to experiment regularly is particularly necessary due to climate change: experimenting regularly not only ensures that community sanitation solutions remain climate resilient and effective, but could also help to reduce the environmental cost of sanitation as much as possible. Moreover, another crucial component of 'experimenting regularly' is ‘not being afraid to fail’, which if adopted within the WASH sector, would develop transparency surrounding WASH failures which is desperately needed to ensure funding is being used effectively. 

Adali’s concluding statement solidified to me, the importance of approaching sanitation and development with a STA:

‘As for us, systems thinkers, we need to spend more energy on thinking about how to thrive and change together with the communities we work with, instead of brainstorming on ways to make change happen for them.’

This shift in perception, towards ‘changing together’ described by Adali, would not only have a deeply decolonising effect and improve (sanitation and water) development in (urban) SSA, but it also has the potential to usher in sustainable development on a global scale. This is particularly relevant when we consider the role of sanitation in adapting to, and mitigating climate change, as more sustainable sanitation technologies must also be implemented in ‘developed’ countries. It is for this reason that I remain firmly optimistic that in the coming decades, SSA will lead the sanitation revolution. 

Of course, its idealistic to imagine a world in which all stakeholders, particularly post-colonial governments, adopt a STA, but ultimately, SSA is not on track to meet SDG 6 by 2030 - something must change. In an age of social movements, such as Black Lives Matter, it’s clear that every voice counts. Clearly, if you’ve gotten this far into my blog, you have an interest in water, sanitation and development, perhaps, you are a student, a professor, or work in the WASH sector. Regardless, I encourage you to adopt a STA and raise your voice to bring visibility to the issues, and potential solutions we have explored in this blog!