I've been thinking about the scope of problems related to sanitation in Kibera and, to be honest, I'm overwhelmed. Every week I discover new issues, complexities, and solutions concerning water and sanitation, thereby gradually developing a slightly more enlightened perspective. On one hand I am learning and forming my own ideas about potential agents for change and action, which is fantastic and was one of my initially stated goals. On the other hand, I feel like as I become aware of each potential improvement described in research I encounter, I also become aware of ten more problems I hadn't even considered before.
I started this blog optimistic that I would form an opinion on how to solve the water problem in Kibera. Clearly it would have been naive to imagine I'd come up with something completely novel and groundbreaking, so I'm not claiming I was supposed to shake the earth with the solution to a multifaceted and multidisciplinary problem that experts have been dedicating their lives to solving for decades. But I was fairly confident that I would feel comfortable taking a firm stance on recommending a pragmatic and articulate course of action to ensure all residents of Kibera have access to clean water. And I don't know if I've achieved that. This isn't a bad thing.
At this point, I feel like I have a superior set of knowledge and critical awareness of sanitation in Kibera than I did eight weeks ago. But perhaps the most valuable thing I realized was how complex sanitation really is.
Before beginning the blog my perception of sanitation was mostly a public sector problem. I figured the government is responsible for providing or regulating the sale of clean water. It seemed if they are holding up their end of the deal residents should be fine. I thought I would be looking into the processes by which political power is negotiated, stakeholders are involved, and corruption somehow interferes. But I was completely wrong. Sanitation transcends the sale and distribution of clean drinking water and is instead deeply ingrained in the health, education, gender politics, and enterprise of a city or settlement.
If I were asked now how to solve the sanitation issue in Kibera, I would suggest that we need to galvanize a culture change around water and sanitation that starts with the residents who are directly affected. We would need to consult expert opinions in fields that range from geography, health ecologies, politics, economics, gender relations, to environmental sustainability. Ultimately, this isn't a change that can happen overnight, as culture changes take a lot of time. Instead we can provide resources that act as bandaids to many problems connected to sanitation, meanwhile working towards the greater culture change through education and community involvement in order to fix the underlying issue the bandaids cover.
At first I felt a little bit defeated by the daunting scale of change that is necessary to ensure access to safe water sustainably, but now I feel hopeful. As an urban studies and fine arts student in my home university, I never would have taken a class about water in Africa. I certainly would not have started a blog about sanitation in Kibera.
After just one semester of applied research and critical exploration I feel excited by opportunities to create change. My professional interests also developed as a result of this blog. I had somewhat written off the possibility of really being able to make a change in issues like sanitation in Kibera outside of a life in academia or politics. It's clear to me now there are ways to contribute to positive change through almost any sector or industry, and there are definitely opportunities to do good while doing well. I hope to find small scale mediations between industry and social change to establish a career that is fulfilling to me as a person who is both interested in business and in social justice.
Thursday 15 December 2016
Response to Ana-Lin's "Africa Water Sanitation: Cholera Disease of the Poor"
I want to reopen the dialogue about diarrhea I began in my most post about child mortality caused by diarrhea. I just read the blog entry Cholera Disease of the Poor, by my classmate, Ana-Lin, and I want to explore a point she raised.
Her point that challenged the expectation of individual responsibility for sanitation really caught my attention. She says neighboring countries have a great responsibility towards each other in caring for sanitation. This is substantiated by using Ghana as an example, where cholera rates are highest on the coast, where most trade that affects other African countries occurs, and in the north, near the border with Burkina Faso.
I had originally framed the problem of sanitation within a local context: it is the responsibility of residents of Kibera, residents of Nairobi, and residents of Kenya at large to care for their sanitation and put a premium on education and prevention. But as she points out, the water borne diseases that cause diarrhea, like cholera, travel through trans-boundary water sources and points of contact for trade. She is right to claim sanitation needs to be an international effort. Together these ideas encourage a model of engaging internationally and acting locally.
Map of Ghana and neighboring countries: GoogleMaps
Her point that challenged the expectation of individual responsibility for sanitation really caught my attention. She says neighboring countries have a great responsibility towards each other in caring for sanitation. This is substantiated by using Ghana as an example, where cholera rates are highest on the coast, where most trade that affects other African countries occurs, and in the north, near the border with Burkina Faso.
I had originally framed the problem of sanitation within a local context: it is the responsibility of residents of Kibera, residents of Nairobi, and residents of Kenya at large to care for their sanitation and put a premium on education and prevention. But as she points out, the water borne diseases that cause diarrhea, like cholera, travel through trans-boundary water sources and points of contact for trade. She is right to claim sanitation needs to be an international effort. Together these ideas encourage a model of engaging internationally and acting locally.
Map of Ghana and neighboring countries: GoogleMaps
Water and Women
Early on I expressed an interest in exploring womens issues in urban sanitation in Kibera. While exploring urban sanitation, literature about social enterprise and childrens sanitation caught my attention. I'm really glad I discovered these topics because they sparked a new perspective on sanitation and an academic interest I hadn't considered previously. However, given my strong interest in gender issues, I want to quickly return to my original idea to explore how women negotiate the ins and outs of water sanitation in Kibera.
It's worth sharing my particular interest in Kibera, and more specifically women in Kibera, was sparked a few years ago by a video that went viral. Created by Shining Hope for Communities, the video showcases one of their many community projects, The Kibera School for Girls, which I discussed in an earlier blog entry.
First, I want to acknowledge the importance of treating women's issues as diverse, dynamic, and independent experiences. In her post, The Dangers of Ecofeminism , my classmate Phoebe Crossland provides a robust deconstruction of stereotypes applied to women's roles in water collection and sanitation in Sub-Saharan Africa and cautions readers against painting the role of women in sanitation with a broad stroke. Therefore, I want to narrowly focus my claims to represent experiences of women in Kibera.
Accessing Water
Most water in Kibera is supplied by the Nairobi City Water and Sewage Company– commonly referred to as the Nairobi Water Company (Nairobi Water Company). The field report about water kiosks in Kibera by RWSG-ESA describes how the piped lines connected to this water source are subject to water rationings up to three times a week, come from a source outside of Kibera (limiting residents' agency over their water supply), and are very expensive (UNDP-World Bank Regional Water and Sanitation Group for East and Southern Africa). These infrastructure and policy inadequacies put a lot of pressure on women, who are the main water gatherers.
The opportunity cost of getting water for the home is a serious problem for women. When water is unavailable from the tapped source, there is one borehole in the Mokina Mosque in Kibera that women rely on. When this is the only source of water women can spend their entire day waiting for and bringing home jerry cans of water. This prevents women from earning income and is also costly in and of itself (UN Water Action Hub).
A striking example of this struggle comes from Access to Water in a Nairobi Slum: Women's Work and Institutional Learning, by Ben Crow of UC Santa Cruise and Edmond Odaba of Africa Civil Society Platform for Social Protection. During water shortages it takes one woman about five hours a day to collect water. Confounding the opportunity cost of earning money, the water she purchases costs about USD $13/month, only slightly less than her $15/month rent (Crow & Edmond 2010).
Image: Women carry jerry cans of water. source: Water Wells for Africa
Water Sanitation and Physical Safety
Amnesty International published an extensive report on women's experiences with sanitation in Nairobi slums, "Kenya: Risking Rape to Reach a Toilet: Women's Experiences in the Slums of Nairobi, Kenya." As the powerful title suggests, women are not protected legislatively or socially in Kibera.
This report describes men's attitudes towards women. Domestic physical and sexual abuse among partners is the norm and gang violence against women in the streets is extremely prevalent. Almost all women interviewed in the study mentioned the exacerbation of this danger at night (Amnesty International 2010).
68 percent of Kibera residents rely on shared toilets (World Bank 2006). Women who venture out of their homes at night to public toilets are at high risk of being raped and attacked. Because of this threat, it is more common for women to engage in open defecation outside their home. Until gender equality education, greater police presence, and law enforcement against violence are implemented sanitation remains a huge risk for women in Kibera.
It's worth sharing my particular interest in Kibera, and more specifically women in Kibera, was sparked a few years ago by a video that went viral. Created by Shining Hope for Communities, the video showcases one of their many community projects, The Kibera School for Girls, which I discussed in an earlier blog entry.
First, I want to acknowledge the importance of treating women's issues as diverse, dynamic, and independent experiences. In her post, The Dangers of Ecofeminism , my classmate Phoebe Crossland provides a robust deconstruction of stereotypes applied to women's roles in water collection and sanitation in Sub-Saharan Africa and cautions readers against painting the role of women in sanitation with a broad stroke. Therefore, I want to narrowly focus my claims to represent experiences of women in Kibera.
Accessing Water
Most water in Kibera is supplied by the Nairobi City Water and Sewage Company– commonly referred to as the Nairobi Water Company (Nairobi Water Company). The field report about water kiosks in Kibera by RWSG-ESA describes how the piped lines connected to this water source are subject to water rationings up to three times a week, come from a source outside of Kibera (limiting residents' agency over their water supply), and are very expensive (UNDP-World Bank Regional Water and Sanitation Group for East and Southern Africa). These infrastructure and policy inadequacies put a lot of pressure on women, who are the main water gatherers.
The opportunity cost of getting water for the home is a serious problem for women. When water is unavailable from the tapped source, there is one borehole in the Mokina Mosque in Kibera that women rely on. When this is the only source of water women can spend their entire day waiting for and bringing home jerry cans of water. This prevents women from earning income and is also costly in and of itself (UN Water Action Hub).
A striking example of this struggle comes from Access to Water in a Nairobi Slum: Women's Work and Institutional Learning, by Ben Crow of UC Santa Cruise and Edmond Odaba of Africa Civil Society Platform for Social Protection. During water shortages it takes one woman about five hours a day to collect water. Confounding the opportunity cost of earning money, the water she purchases costs about USD $13/month, only slightly less than her $15/month rent (Crow & Edmond 2010).
Image: Women carry jerry cans of water. source: Water Wells for Africa
Water Sanitation and Physical Safety
Amnesty International published an extensive report on women's experiences with sanitation in Nairobi slums, "Kenya: Risking Rape to Reach a Toilet: Women's Experiences in the Slums of Nairobi, Kenya." As the powerful title suggests, women are not protected legislatively or socially in Kibera.
This report describes men's attitudes towards women. Domestic physical and sexual abuse among partners is the norm and gang violence against women in the streets is extremely prevalent. Almost all women interviewed in the study mentioned the exacerbation of this danger at night (Amnesty International 2010).
68 percent of Kibera residents rely on shared toilets (World Bank 2006). Women who venture out of their homes at night to public toilets are at high risk of being raped and attacked. Because of this threat, it is more common for women to engage in open defecation outside their home. Until gender equality education, greater police presence, and law enforcement against violence are implemented sanitation remains a huge risk for women in Kibera.
We need to get over our proper selves and start talking about diarrhea.
With the holidays around the corner it feels like every children's advocacy group is out in full force and children's issues are at the top of my mind. I've been wondering, where do children fall into the water and sanitation landscape in Kibera?
In Kibera, over 60 percent of all residents are under the age of 15 (Kenya Population and Housing Census 2009). While children's issues should always be valued and advocated for, the prevalence of "youth bulge" means youth issues should be at the forefront of the political agenda in Kibera.
Sanitation for children poses a huge threat to the wellbeing of the population. Despite the taboo against discussing defecation, diarrhea is the leading cause of death for children under 5 years old in developing countries (UN News 2014). Health efforts against HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other disease are strong, however, diarrhea is almost unmentioned. This is shocking given the reality that diarrhea is responsible for 1.5 million child deaths per year (UNICEF 2015).
I understand why diarrhea isn't a sexy cause to support, but given its potency it demands greater attention and action.
One such effort is a study that was done in the Laini-Saba Village of Kibera Slum, Nairobi. About 40,000 residents are estimated to live in the Laini-Saba Village, which is predominantly made of semi-permanent homes. 105 homes with children ages 0-5 were included in the study, accounting for 170 children within the stated age range. The study established that the rate of diarrhea was as high as 36 percent. The problem is exacerbated by poor hygienic standards for disposal of waste. The slum is affected by serious overcrowding and sanitation is characterized by overflowing latrines and open defecation. I think the most interesting finding is the strong relationship between family education and rates of diarrhea in their children (Kung’u, 2002).
It's possible that providing strong health education resources and sanitation education could greatly improve the rate of diarrhea in children ages 0-5 and thereby significantly decrease their mortality rate. But education alone is not enough. Sanitation issues also need to be destigmatized and the community members need to take responsibility as agents of change.
In her book, Tales of Shit: Community-led Total Sanitation in Africa, Petra Bongartz makes light of this stigma. She suggests actionable change around sanitation has to be community-led, which begins with minimization of the stigma around discussing defecation. Bongartz discusses the goal of establishing Open Defecation Free (ODF) villages discussed in the paper, "Scaling up CLTS in Kenya: opportunities, challenges and lessons (Bongartz 2010). In Kenya, in 2007 the first Open Defecation Free village was established, and by 2010 over 200 existed (Musyoki 2010).
In Kibera, over 60 percent of all residents are under the age of 15 (Kenya Population and Housing Census 2009). While children's issues should always be valued and advocated for, the prevalence of "youth bulge" means youth issues should be at the forefront of the political agenda in Kibera.
Sanitation for children poses a huge threat to the wellbeing of the population. Despite the taboo against discussing defecation, diarrhea is the leading cause of death for children under 5 years old in developing countries (UN News 2014). Health efforts against HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other disease are strong, however, diarrhea is almost unmentioned. This is shocking given the reality that diarrhea is responsible for 1.5 million child deaths per year (UNICEF 2015).
I understand why diarrhea isn't a sexy cause to support, but given its potency it demands greater attention and action.
One such effort is a study that was done in the Laini-Saba Village of Kibera Slum, Nairobi. About 40,000 residents are estimated to live in the Laini-Saba Village, which is predominantly made of semi-permanent homes. 105 homes with children ages 0-5 were included in the study, accounting for 170 children within the stated age range. The study established that the rate of diarrhea was as high as 36 percent. The problem is exacerbated by poor hygienic standards for disposal of waste. The slum is affected by serious overcrowding and sanitation is characterized by overflowing latrines and open defecation. I think the most interesting finding is the strong relationship between family education and rates of diarrhea in their children (Kung’u, 2002).
Figure Above: Diarrhea Prevalence and Level of Education. Source: Diarrhea prevalence and risk factors in slums
It's possible that providing strong health education resources and sanitation education could greatly improve the rate of diarrhea in children ages 0-5 and thereby significantly decrease their mortality rate. But education alone is not enough. Sanitation issues also need to be destigmatized and the community members need to take responsibility as agents of change.
In her book, Tales of Shit: Community-led Total Sanitation in Africa, Petra Bongartz makes light of this stigma. She suggests actionable change around sanitation has to be community-led, which begins with minimization of the stigma around discussing defecation. Bongartz discusses the goal of establishing Open Defecation Free (ODF) villages discussed in the paper, "Scaling up CLTS in Kenya: opportunities, challenges and lessons (Bongartz 2010). In Kenya, in 2007 the first Open Defecation Free village was established, and by 2010 over 200 existed (Musyoki 2010).
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