KWAHO - Kenya Water for Health Organisation

Latrine emptying in Nairobi

Source: David Kinley, “KWAHO’s Urban Challenge.” Source, (New York: United Nations Development Programme, July 1992).

The Kenyan Water for Health Organization (KWAHO) helped poor residents in a Nairobi informal settlement to establish a latrine emptying service for which they were willing to pay in advance.

Kibera is Nairobi’s largest peri-urban settlement, with a population of 400,000 located on 110 hectares of high-density rental housing. With KWAHO’s help, residents built ventilated improved pit (VIP) latrines and needed a way to dispose of the resulting waste. The Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (NORAD) provided support for a special suction truck able to maneuver its way through the narrow streets and empty the pit latrines regularly. A 13-member community management team oversees the operation. During the first half of 1991, more than 6,000 households paid the US$9 advance fee to have their home latrines emptied.

from: Toward a Strategic Sanitation Approach: Improving the Sustainability of Urban Sanitation in Developing Countries by Albert M. Wright, International Bank for Reconstruction and Development/The World Bankm, Washington, November 1997, page 19 box 11.
http://www.wsp.org/publications/global_ssa.pdf