By Dominic O’Neill
As Kenya hosted the Water and Sanitation Investors Conference (WASIC) early in the year, the government’s vision of achieving universal access to sanitation and hygiene through a vibrant sanitation economy should be applauded.
It is estimated that once Kenya achieves universal access to sanitation, the country’s vibrant sanitation economy could be worth 2.8 billion dollars. The number is staggering, in a good way, and importantly, if it helps shatter long-held views of sanitation being the ‘dirty side’ of water or waste. The Sanitation Economy can be the next frontier for impact investment coupled with locally-led entrepreneurial innovation in non-sewered sanitation systems.
In reality, as global progress on sustainable development goal (SDG) target 6.2 on universal access to sanitation lags severely behind, countries must shift old models and seek an opportunity to build resilient sanitation economies that can provide safely managed sanitation to millions while hedging against future environmental and health risks. With the possibility of generating jobs, livelihoods, and businesses along a robust value chain built around toilets, from installation to collection, transport, treatment, and reuse, national sanitation economies offer exciting prospects for social and financial returns on investment.
Over the years, Kenya has been steadily focusing on building the sanitation sector’s institutional and regulatory frameworks, to create an enabling environment that can attract public and private financing.
Citizens’ rights to sanitation are enshrined in Kenya’s constitution, and consistent and deliberate efforts have been made to deliver these services to all Kenyans, most recently through Kenya’s 2021 National Water and Sanitation Strategy. The forward-looking strategy recognizes that to achieve universal access, and there is a clear need to build sewers and non-sewered sanitation. This requires both public and private actors in sanitation management within established standards. Kenya’s leadership should be applauded for seeking to develop the sanitation value chain accordingly.
In emerging markets, where small and medium-sized enterprises create 70% of formal jobs, the sanitation economy presents a powerful opportunity to create even more jobs. By scaling up sanitation solutions, we’re improving public health and investing in local economies and supply chains. Notably, women entrepreneurs who often lead the sanitation and menstrual hygiene sectors. Ultimately, investing in sanitation, hygiene, and menstrual health is an investment in women and girls, strengthening the societies and economies they fuel.
As the proverb goes, “Tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it today.” This is especially true on our rapidly warming planet. Kenya, like many nations, faces the harsh realities of climate change. However, an opportunity exists – building a circular sanitation economy that reduces methane emissions and sustainably reuses wastewater.
Climate-induced floods devastate sanitation and hygiene access. Investing in climate-resilient water, sanitation, and hygiene infrastructure strengthens resilience against these disasters, mitigating health risks like cholera and diarrhoea. Additionally, nature-based systems can preemptively reduce emissions. A circular sanitation approach holds immense potential—it offers the possibility of reusing 3.8 trillion litres of human waste annually, re-integrating it into the broader economic cycle.
As the building blocks of a growing sanitation economy come together, strategic investments are needed to make Kenya the sanitation powerhouse it can be, setting the example for Africa and the world as it has done in sectors like mobile payments and technology. The market is ready for investment, with over 39 of 64 utilities receiving ratings of ‘BB’ and above for their creditworthiness after evaluation by the national regulator. The economic and social returns of investment in sanitation must be spotlighted.
For the same purpose, actors like ourselves at the UN’s Sanitation and Hygiene Fund (SHF) are committed to partnering with countries like Kenya to build a thriving sanitation economy and menstrual health and hygiene market where all women and girls can exercise their agency as consumers, members of the economic workforce, and members of the community fabric. We can only deliver a sustainable sanitation economy through strategic public and private financing that provides economic and social returns for all.
Mr. O’Neill is the Executive Director of the UN’s Sanitation and Hygiene Fund (SHF) and can be reached at comms@shfund.org. SHF supports WSUP’s work in Kenya.