On a journey to citywide inclusive sanitation (CWIS)? A political economy analysis of container-based sanitation (CBS) in the fragmented (in)formal city

Abstract

Rapidly growing cities face the chronic challenge of access to safe, dignified and accessible sanitation, in contexts of inequality and informality. Technological and operational innovations, such as container-based sanitation (CBS), are promoted as relatively low-cost market-based circular economy off-grid solutions to deliver citywide inclusive sanitation (CWIS). However, in the absence of evidence that CBS is delivering on these promises, this paper asks: under what conditions can CBS services contribute to achieving CWIS goals? It applies a combined political economy and socio-technical regime analysis to examine multi-level governance in the sanitation sector and CBS service regimes in Cape Town, Lima, Nairobi and Cap-Haitien. Only Cape Town, a municipality-controlled system, demonstrates the necessary public authority that enables CBS to operate at scale. Yet, it is regarded by many residents in informal settlements as poor sanitation for poor people. This suggests that scaling CBS requires sustained public investment and strong coordinating authority.

Article Summary

Nearly half the world’s urban population lacks safely managed sanitation, with billions relying on off-grid solutions like pit latrines and septic tanks that often fail to safely contain human waste. Container-based sanitation (CBS) where excreta is collected in sealable containers, regularly emptied, and safely treated has been promoted by development agencies as a relatively low-cost, market-based circular economy solution for informal settlements. Proponents argue CBS can provide dignified sanitation without the massive infrastructure investment required for sewered systems, while also reducing water demand and enabling nutrient recycling. But does this vision match reality? This study asks a crucial question: under what conditions can CBS actually contribute to achieving citywide inclusive sanitation, especially in cities characterized by extreme inequality and informality?

The research team conducted in-depth political economy analysis across four cities with very different governance contexts: Cape Town (South Africa), Nairobi (Kenya), Lima (Peru), and Cap-Haitien (Haiti). Using a framework that combines political economy with socio-technical regime analysis, the researchers examined how CBS operates not just as a technology but as part of complex urban sanitation “sectoral regimes” shaped by colonial histories, power dynamics, institutional capacity, and the distribution of public authority across formal and informal spaces. Through extensive interviews with stakeholders at all levels from national ministries and donors to CBS service providers, local leaders, and residents the team analyzed how different forms of public authority, regulatory capability, and political commitment shape whether CBS can scale and who it serves.

The findings reveal a stark reality that challenges techno-optimistic narratives. Only Cape Town, where the municipality provides over 40,000 CBS units free to informal settlement residents as part of constitutional obligations, demonstrates CBS operating at significant scale. Yet paradoxically, many Cape Town residents view these portable flush toilets as degrading “bucket toilets” poor sanitation for poor people that perpetuates apartheid-era inequalities rather than dignifying them. In contrast, the three cities with NGO/social enterprise CBS providers (Sanergy in Nairobi, Sanima in Lima, SOIL in Cap-Haitien) all remain heavily dependent on donor funding, recovering only 10-25% of costs through user fees, and serve relatively small populations (1,400-7,000 people). The study concludes that CBS can address immediate sanitation needs, but scaling requires sustained public investment and strong coordinating public authority not market-based solutions. Moreover, fundamental questions persist: Is CBS a temporary stopgap until sewers arrive, a permanent alternative, or simply inadequate sanitation that entrenches urban inequality? The answer depends entirely on whether political will exists to invest public resources equitably, rather than leaving the urban poor to private coping strategies or donor-dependent services.

Key Points

• Only Cape Town’s municipality-controlled CBS system operates at significant scale (40,000+ units), yet residents still perceive it as “poor sanitation for poor people” reminiscent of apartheid-era bucket toilets, highlighting that technology alone cannot address infrastructural inequality
• NGO/social enterprise CBS providers in Nairobi, Lima, and Cap-Haitien remain heavily donor-dependent, recovering only 10-25% of operating costs through user fees and serving relatively small populations, demonstrating the limitations of market-based sanitation solutions
• The study reveals that CBS success depends on sectoral regime configuration: monolithic systems with strong public authority (Cape Town) enable scale, while splintered (Nairobi), fragmented (Lima), or ad-hoc (Haiti) regimes produce limited, unsustainable services
• Political economy analysis shows that colonial histories, power dynamics, and the distribution of public authority across formal-informal “grey spaces” fundamentally shape who receives what quality of sanitation patterns that technology alone cannot overcome
• The research challenges development narratives promoting CBS as a circular economy solution, arguing that achieving citywide inclusive sanitation requires political commitment to equitable public investment rather than expecting markets or aid-dependent NGOs to solve structural inequality

This study offers essential insights for urban policymakers, development practitioners, sanitation specialists, and researchers seeking to understand why technical solutions to urban inequality consistently fall short without confronting the political economies that produce and maintain infrastructural violence in rapidly growing cities.

Recommended Citation

Mdee, A., Ofori, A. D., Barrington, D., Anciano, F., Dube, M., Hutchings, P., Kramer, S., López-Valladares, H., Parker, A., Riungu, J. N., & Ward, C. (2024). On a journey to citywide inclusive sanitation (CWIS)? A political economy analysis of container-based sanitation (CBS) in the fragmented (in)formal city. Globalizations. https://doi.org/10.1080/14747731.2024.2434302