Learning from the MDGs: improved sanitation and drainage in cities
The water MDG was widely acknowledged as the furthest from delivering against its objective, with criticism largely levelled at Target 7.C, which aimed to 'halve, by 2015, the proportion of the population without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation'.
Across two issues of the journal, 22 papers tackle sanitation globally, alongside specific case studies and issues within Mongolia, Zimbabwe, Haiti, South Africa, Mozambique, Ghana, China, Zambia, Tanzania, and several cities in India.
Topics include:
- Different technical models (container-based toilets, closed-loop system)
- Ways of assessing sanitation quality (sanitation scores in Indian cities, a new system to measure sanitary risks in Maputo)
- Differential impacts of sanitation on certain groups (urban poor adolescent girls in Bengaluru, women and girls affected by sanitation-related violence, the poor and socially excluded in Shanghai)
- Frameworks for understanding sanitation ("sanitation cityscape", "sites of entitlement")
- Financing models (limitations to market-based services in East Africa, user willingness to pay in urban Haiti, public toilets in Ghana)
- Contextual factors for understanding sanitation (history in Dar es Salaam, a case study of Lusaka)
- Participation and inclusion (community-managed programmes in India, civil society partnership in Mumbai, reflections on inclusive sanitation, co-production of inclusive sanitation in Zimbabwe, stormwater drainage in Johannesburg, open-access water information platform), and
- Policy (national sanitation policy in India, solid waste management in Chandigarh).
Despite these wide-ranging themes, many of the papers share a concern with the slow pace of sanitation improvement in the world's cities. This lack of progress is particularly notable now that it is clear that we have failed to achieve the Millennium Development Goal target of halving the proportion of the people without basic sanitation.
Yet the papers showcase positive context-dependent developments and point the way forward.
Diana Mitlin, the author of the October 2015 editorial and co-author of the April 2015 editorial, said: "What is evident is that global commitments can and have made a difference – especially if there is the understanding that progress in sanitation requires a sophisticated knowledge of the local context and projects owned by those who are intended to benefit. Contextual knowledge, with innovation and flexibility in crafting solutions and determination to secure progress, emerge as necessary conditions."
Contact
For interviews, contact:
- David Satterthwaite, editor – email: [email protected]; tel: +44 (0) 20 3463 7399; Twitter: @Dsatterthwaite
- Diana Mitlin, author – email: [email protected]; tel: +44 (0) 20 3463 7399; email: @DianaMitlin
For copies of the papers, contact:
- Christine Ro, copy/managing editor – email: [email protected]; tel: +44 (0) 20 3463 7399
Notes to editors
Full list of individual papers:
- Reflections on inclusive sanitation
Corresponding author: Diana Mitlin ([email protected]) - Co-producing inclusive sanitation in Chinhoyi, Zimbabwe
Corresponding author: Anna Walnycki ([email protected]) - Sanitation partnership of Mumbai and the Indian Alliance
Corresponding author: Sheela Patel ([email protected]) - Sanitation and urban poor adolescent girls in Bengaluru, India
Corresponding author: Anupama Nallari ([email protected]) - Container-based sanitation in Cap Haitien, Haiti (open access)
Corresponding author: Jenna Davis ([email protected]) - Violence, gender and water/sanitation/hygiene
Corresponding author: Marni Sommer ([email protected]) - Sanitation scores in Indian cities
Corresponding author: Sridhar Vedachalam ([email protected]) - IWA WaterWiki, an open-access publishing platform
Corresponding author: Chloe Parker ([email protected]) - Assessing sanitary risks in Maputo, Mozambique
Corresponding author: Luiza C Campos ([email protected]) - Using tenure to build a "sanitation cityscape"
Corresponding author: Pippa Scott ([email protected]) - Stormwater drainage in informal settlements in Johannesburg
Corresponding author: Olumuyiwa Bayode Adegun ([email protected]) - Market-driven sanitation services in informal settlements
Corresponding author: Mark O'Keefe ([email protected]) - Sites of entitlement in Mumbai (open access)
Corresponding author: Colin McFarlane ([email protected]) - Evaluating a closed-loop sanitation system in peri-urban Mongolia
Corresponding author: Sayed Mohammad Nazim Uddin ([email protected]) - Sanitation and the city of Dar es Salaam
Corresponding author: Maria Chiara Pastore ([email protected]) - Power, politics and history in relation to sanitation in Lusaka
Corresponding author: Ruth Kennedy-Walker ([email protected]) - Urban sanitation and community-managed programmes in India
Corresponding author: Priyam Das ([email protected]) - User perceptions of container-based sanitation in Cap Haitien (open access)
Corresponding author: Jenna Davis ([email protected]) - Sanitation and urban development in Shanghai
Corresponding author: Deljana Iossifova ([email protected]) - National policy and urban sanitation in India
Corresponding author: Kavita Wankhade ([email protected]) - Solid waste management in Chandigarh, India
Corresponding author: Namita Gupta ([email protected]) - Public toilets in Accra
Corresponding author: Clair Null ([email protected])
About Environment & Urbanization: Environment & Urbanization is a widely read and highly regarded urban studies and environmental studies journal, co-published by IIED and SAGE. It has been published since 1989. There are more than 330,000 full text downloads of Environment and Urbanization yearly.
About IIED: IIED is a policy and action research organisation promoting sustainable development and linking local priorities to global challenges. We are based in London and work on five continents with some of the world's most vulnerable people to strengthen their voice in the decision-making arenas that affect them.
For more information or to request an interview, contact Simon Cullen:
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