Rethinking Sanitation: Why Innovation, Not Just Investment, Matters
While the world met the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) for water access ahead of schedule, sanitation continues to lag behind, leaving nearly 2.5 billion people without basic sanitation and over 1 billion still practicing open defecation. The burden of poor sanitation remains one of the greatest public health and economic challenges of our time.Despite the well-known health and economic benefits from preventing 1.5 million diarrheal deaths annually to generating ninefold returns on every dollar invested, sanitation systems in many developing countries remain broken, particularly in urban informal settlements. The issue isn’t just infrastructure it’s the lack of affordable, scalable, and context-appropriate solutions.The sanitation service chain often collapses at the emptying and disposal stage, with fecal sludge frequently dumped in unsafe areas. To change this, we need innovation that fits local realities not just bigger budgets. Promising approaches like Community-Led Total Sanitation (CLTS++), Sanitation as a Business, and the Reinvented Toilet movement show that it’s possible to close the sanitation gap through behavior change, smart service models, and technological creativity.Here in Zambia, for instance, emerging models of fecal sludge management in Lusaka, including business-driven pit emptying services and biochar valorization, are offering glimpses of how innovation can transform what was once “waste” into valuable resources, while restoring dignity and improving urban health.If anything, this global challenge reminds us that sanitation success will depend less on the scale of our spending and more on the depth of our innovation, partnerships, and understanding of community realities.Discussion prompt:
How can we make sanitation innovation more inclusive,ensuring that low-income urban and rural communities not only access facilities but also experience real, lasting health benefits?