Posts

Blog 7: looking to the future- A systems thinking approach

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Looking to the Future  In these past 10 weeks, I have examined the colonial legacies within the sector as well as the present landscape, which makes it fitting to finish by looking at the future of the WASH sector. Rather than taking a micro-level, humanistic perspective, this blog will take a step back, and look at the wider systems in place, and how these can be adapted to improve the future of the wash sector. I will be advocating a System Thinking Approach (STA).     Why A STA?  ( Adali, 2020 ) There is no doubt that WASH provision takes place in a complex system, relying on a network of people and actors to effectively provide sanitation ( Figure 1 ) . This therefore makes the challenge of adequate WASH facilities far more than building wash infrastructure. The provision of WASH infrastructure has been central to the past 3 decades of WASH interventions, as it is far easier than challenging some of the boarder systems in place, however, this has infrequently achieved the desired c
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The Tip Top Tippy Tap

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A critical evaluation of the Tippy Tap  Having read thesanitationstation's blog on the effectiveness of waterless toilets, and reading about a succession of  failed infrastructural projects, it inspired me to think about innovations which have emerged from African communities and are proving successful.  The importance of hand washing: Despite sufficient evidence that hand washing is, " The single most important intervention for preventing diarrhoeal and respiratory infections ", the rate of hand washing remains low in resource limited settings. In Uganda, diarrhoeal diseases are the fourth leading cause of child mortality , which is completely preventable, with adequate sanitation. This evidence suggests that hand washing is critical at the best of times, yet with the recent outbreak of the infectious COVID-19, hand washing has become even more important, with the WHO recommended increased hand washing to prevent transmission. Therefore, in this current context, the “im
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Colonial Legacies in the WASH sector

In my first blog, I mentioned how current discourse surrounding the  WASH sector is embedded in  colonial knowledge . The impact that colonialism has had, and continues to have on the WASH sector is something that I aim to explore further in this blog . I aim to draw these ideas together to pose the argument that Africa has had a western paradigm of ‘modernity’ imposed on it during colonialism which does not serve the needs of the local people, and in order to move forwards, African leaders and the West need to move away from this paradigm and find solutions which prioritise the needs to the local communities. During colonialism  During colonialism, the European empire generally refused to provide modern sanitation and water infrastructure in “native neighbourhoods,” instead used racial zoning and cordons sanitaires to segregate European neighbourhoods from epidemic disease .  Nilsson  ( 2017 ) gives an example of the French settlement Saint-Louis de Senegal in West Africa, where the
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Invisibility of sanitation workers and World Toilet Day

Sanitation Workers In contrast to my last post, this blog will aim to shine a spotlight on the small-scale actors that uphold the informal sanitation systems: sanitation workers. I hope to highlight the importance of the work that these actors do, but also shed light on precocity of their job, and provide a compelling argument as to why they should be rendered visible and how this can be achieved. This blog post is written in response to World Toilet Day (19 th  November) which aims to make visible the experiences of the 4.2 billion people worldwide who lack adequate sanitation, and project these lived realities onto a wider stage.    The concept of urban metabolism highlights that the city itself is a place through which waste flows, often unnoticed when things are going as they should. Urban metabolism is part of urbanisation, and is a way of understanding the circulation of material, including human waste through the city.  It is only when these flows do not work as they should, t
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The Nestle Milk Scandal- Is it WATER UNDER THE BRIDGE?

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Inadequate water and sanitation access is gendered, with the impacts disproportionately making it harder for women and girls to lead safe, productive, healthy lifestyles . As a female myself, this is something that I wanted to write about in my blogs, however, when I stumbled upon the  Nestle Milk Scandal I was shocked that it wasn't something I had heard about. I therefore want to share what I found for others who may not have heard, whilst trying to answer the question of what should be done about it.  Figure 1 : Nestle advertising used in Africa In the 1970's, Nestle was the first major formal milk manufacturer to enter the Global South, marketing its formula milk as an alternative to breastfeeding. In Nigeria, the uptake was large, with 70% of babies being exclusively formula fed, when they used to be breastfed up until the age of 4 ( Muller 1974 ). The marketing of western babies on billboards who were, “Strong and Fat,” encouraged mothers to buy breast milk formula in th
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"What the hell can a slum dog possibly know?" Particiaptory Slum Upgrading

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As I sat on my sofa, ready to unwind from a busy week, I decided to watch a film. I chose ‘Slumdog Millionaire’, however, as I began watching it, I found myself unable to separate what I was watching on screen from Water & Development in Africa- great! My (not quite) relaxing activity quickly became the backbone of this blog. ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ tells a captivating story of a poor orphan’s precarious childhood, growing up in Mumbai’s slums. I know that this course is Water and Development in Africa, so I will keep my film analysis broad, and instead focus on some of the thoughts that it provoked.   The films depictions of slums: There are more than 200, 000 slums on earth, each varying from one settlement to another however slums have shared characteristics, one of which being a lack of basic services, especially water and sanitation infrastructure (Davies 2006) . In  the film, the protagonist,  Jamal, plunges from a hanging latrine into a pool of faeces to get a famous Indian mo
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