On-site sanitation : an international review of World Bank experience

The purpose of this review is to identify lessons from World Bank-supported low-cost on-site sanitation projects. East Asia, South Asia, and Africa were the focus of the review. The objectives of the study were to: a) examine low-cost on-site sanitation technology, their advantages and disadvantages; and b) review Bank-supported on-site sanitation projects to identify the problems and issues related to technology selection, project implementation, and the sustainability of improvements. The review covers on site sanitation work in 24 water supply and sanitation projects over the past 20 years. The report concludes that: 1) Many lactrine designs have proved effective for low-cost on-site sanitation. Care must be taken to select appropriate and acceptable designs. 2) Getting communities involved in the selection process is the key to finding an economically and culturally acceptable design. 3) The Bank and all donors need to give sanitation a higher priority. 4) Many latrine users consider latrines to be some kind of a social status symbol. When promoting and marketing sanitation, project implementers can focus on the social benefits as well as the hygiene benefits. 5) Effective cost sharing and cost recovery policies are essential to build user-ownership of sanitation facilities. 6) Sustainable investment in household sanitation requires a sense of ownership by the users. 7) Strategies developed for sustainable sanitation programs include: developing demand-driven