Publication database

The objective of this study is to document and assess existing container-based sanitation (CBS) approaches, with a particular focus on evaluating their safety, reliability, affordability, and financial viability. The report also seeks to identify the circumstances in which CBS approaches are most appropriate. The study was motivated by growing interest in the emerging CBS experiences and by the fact that many governments, city authorities, and financing entities are often not familiar with the approach. The study builds on four case studies: Sanergy, Nairobi, Kenya; Sustainable Organic Integrated Livelihoods [SOIL], Cap-Haitien, Haiti; Clean Team, Kumasi, Ghana; and x-runner, Lima, Peru.

The Impact investing market map, provides three basic but crucial benefits to the impact investing industry: (1) a common definition of a thematic investment that is aligned with at least one international organisation, global market leader and/or data provider; (2) basic criteria that explain a theme in practical terms, including thematic and financial conditions to identify specific businesses and investments aligned with the definition provided;  (3) a list of KPIs used by the impact investing community to track and assess the environmental and social performance of a specific theme.

Sanitation businesses can improve services for all urban residents – including the poorest – but this requires carefully designed pricing strategies and measures to reduce risk.

This publication outlines WSUP’s approach to incentivising the private sector to target low-income customers, and how this is being applied to achieve commercial viability, affordability and equity of FSM service provision in Bangladesh.

This policy brief describes the results of a randomized controlled trial in Cambodia testing the impact of offering microfinance institution (MFI) loans for latrines versus cash on delivery. Key findings are: (1) MFI loans increased latrine sales four-fold, (2), MFI loans decreased marketing and sales cost per latrine by 70%, and (3) MFI loans increased purchase rates at any price.

This report looks at affordable community drinking water solutions, the importance of mapping the right technology to the particular contamination, and building awareness and understanding of the products which are available. It draws on insights from the Business Innovation Facility's work with Waterlife, a drinking water systems provider for low-income communities in India.

This paper makes a point for container-based sanitation businesses (CBS) an an alternative to piped sanitation. CBS are uniquely suited to the challenges of serving dense urban populations, but are not without their challenges. The insights shared in this paper are intended to help accelerate progress and to provide water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) stakeholders with a blueprint for taking CBS to the next level.