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, that the work of sanitation workers become visible, despite their job being, "Indispenable to nearly every aspect of society."

 

A consequence of municipalities failing to provide sanitation services, or being cut off from existing sanitation services, results in, "Informal small scale providers filling the gap." very few slum settlements have formal toileting infrastructure, which means that existing pit latrines, which store excreta onsite need emptying. Due to economic constrain, the demand for work, and poor road infrastructure, manual emptiers are used far more frequently than mechanical emptiers. Along side emptying pit latries, other jobs of sanitation workers include cleaning sewers and transporting faecal sludge. 

In an assessment conducted by key organisations (World Bank, World Health Organisation, International Labour Organisation and Water Aid) the challenged faced by sanitation workers were divided into 4 categories:

 1. 1. Occupation and environmental health and safety hazards.- Sanitation workers are exposed to conditions in which they are vulnerable to some of the worst consequences of poor sanitation. In Ougadougou, Burkina Faso, over 26% of waste is managed with little more than bare hands. Workers are forced to work in precarious conditions, with little formal equipment and often no PPE. 

       2. Weak legal protection- the work of sanitation workers is informal, and therefore thee workers face a lack of job security, for example, in the rainy season there is higher demand for pit emptying. 

       3. Financial insecurity- due to the informality of the job, sanitation workers experience unpredictable income. In an informal settlement in Nairobi  workers wages can vary from $1-4 per night. These low wages presents a barrier to social mobility, as presents a, "Multigenerational poverty trap," with it being common for children of sanitation workers to carry on the same job. 

        

       4. Social stigma and discrimination- Much sanitation work is carried out at night due to its stigmatisation. The illegality of the work means that these workers are unprotected.In Nairobi, it is legitimate for night soil workers to be assaulted whilst carrying sewage through the city alleys. Alcoholism and drug addictions are common among sanitation workers to evade working conditions. 

 

 

How to address the problems faced by these workers:

 

These complex challenges suggest that there is no easy solution to managing the challenges of sanitation work. Sanitation work needs to be considered within the larger system. Poor sanitation stretched back to before the colonial period, and heavily features failed technocratic, top-down infrastructure developments, which now required workers to manually move faeces. Current and future landscapes of urbanisation need to be considered so that suitable and long-term improvements can be made.

Bezwada Wilson (2019) states, “Whatever the wages, whatever the safety gear, human beings should not clean other people’s shit” and whilst fundamentally I agree with this, I question the feasibility and pragmatism of such a statement, especially the short term.  The time scale for which something like this could be achieved means that sanitation workers could continue to face these challenges for years to come. In the meantime, what can be done? 

 

The empowerment of these workers can improve the working conditions, and this can be achieved through unions and associations, which can amplify their voices. Additionally  the report mentioned easier recognises that there are critical knowledge gaps when it comes to informal sanitation work, such as the size of the workforce being unknown. In order for improvements to be made, these reports need to engage with sanitation workers,  and work to understand the reality of the situation. The gradual movement of sanitation work into the formal market would enable workers to be protected by laws. Examples such as, eThekwini, Cape Town show that sanitation work can be improved. In Cape Town, the municipality recognise the value and importance of regular pit emptying and allocate substantial funds to ensure that it is done safely. 

World Toilet Day 

Many of the challenges that these workers face comes from the fundamental lack of acknowledgement of their work. This highlights the importance of things such as World Toilet Day, which provides any opportunity to shine a light on the 4.2 billion people lack adequate sanitation, and to those who keep these functions running. There is a need to change the discourse on toilets and sanitation, "from a profoundly private, if not taboo subject," to mainstream discourse. The benefits of adequate sanitation include its impact on public health, gender equality, education, economics and the environment, and sanitation workers are actors in achieving this.