Community sanitation struggles : case of UCLTS in Mathare No. 10 (Kenya)

Mathare 10, is a community located in Nairobi about five kilometers from the Nairobi Central Business District. It has a population of about 15,000 people. Mathare 10 is located within the larger area known as Mathare Valley which is the second largest slum in Kenya. Mathare valley is about four decades old with the oldest settlers being the Mau Mau fighters. Urban Community Led Total Sanitation (UCLTS) is the approach that is being used in Mathare which facilitates the community to understand the resources available within them. People are able to know the dangers of poor sanitation and hygiene and develop solutions to address these problem. This presentation describes the UCLTS approach and how it works in Mathare. It also describes an innoviate approach to maintaining clean toilets through the Community Cleaning Services (CCS) which is a social enterprise that works with young entrepreneurs (and their teams) in low income areas and informal settlements in Nairobi and helps them establish (through training and mentoring) cleaning businesses that provide sanitation services in their communities. [authors abstract]

This three-day workshop aims to identify proven good practices in the sanitation and hygiene sector, as well as drawing lessons from failures to enter into the policy dialogue. It focuses on urban sanitation with an emphasis on learning and innovation in the sector. It was organised by : UNICEF, GTZ, WSSCC, WaterAid and IRC International Water and Sanitation Centre, and hosted by the Rwandan Ministry of Health.