Kenya’s case of missing poop

Kenya produces approximately five million kilogrammes of faeces per day. Only 40 per cent of Nairobi residents are connected to sewers. PHOTO| FOTOSEARCH

Not too long ago, a local TV station highlighted an appeal by Karen Hardy residents to the county government of Nairobi to support their efforts to harvest rain water by draining an unnatural sewer swamp that had attracted Marabou storks which transferred the waste to their roofs.

Most recently, floods caused by heavy rains resulted in the submerging of pit latrines, or destruction of communal toilet facilities, putting into question the quality of ground water from unregulated boreholes used by many households.

As if that were not enough, in April, the Kenya Medical Research Institute (Kemri) and the Ministry of Health reported traces of the polio virus in samples collected from the sewer in Eastleigh, Nairobi.

This triggered a vaccination drive targeting 800,000 children. In addition, cholera has been reported in six counties this year, and last year it claimed over 70 lives, indiscriminate of social class.

This goes to show that even if one is connected to the sewer system, has access to potable water and practises high standards of hygiene, if the next Kenyan can’t afford or access decent sanitation services, we all risk suffering the consequences of poorly managed faecal waste.

To eke out a living and feed the ever growing demand for greens and fruits in urban settings, subsistence and entrepreneurial small-scale farmers make use of raw faecal waste as fertiliser.

Presence of E.coli in perishable foods on Kenyan tables across the socio-economic divide is a frequently highlighted phenomenon. Inflamed intestines as bodies fight off resulting infections means low uptake of needed nutrients.

Each person produces an average of 120 grams of faeces a day. This means that on a good day, Kenya produces approximately five million kilogrammes of faeces.

Challenges in safe management of faecal waste from toilet to treatment for recycling or reuse, mean that most of this waste finds its way back to the environment.

The latest impact report from the Water Services Regulatory Board, shows that only six million of Kenya’s 47 million citizens are connected to the sewer network, which is present only in formal urban areas.

NEED FOR BUDGETARY ALLOCATION

Rural populations and residents of informal settlements have to rely on non-sewered systems with illegal disposal mechanisms. In addition, well-to-do residential areas protect their self-reliance on septic tanks to keep sewers out.

Their solid argument being that sewers open up areas for development regardless of existing guidelines from the Physical Planning Act.

It doesn’t help that national budget allocations to sanitation are spread across several ministries, with no specific budget line for sanitation.

Moreover, allocations are collectively well below the 0.5 per cent of GDP target committed to by the country in the Ngor Declaration (2015).

Though it is encouraging that sanitation now has a home ministry, a lot more needs to be done to ensure that it does not remain shadowed by interventions that focus on water and hygiene.

Itemised budgets from the national budget must be clear on allocations to preventive health to fight sanitation-related communicable diseases.

The Health Sector Working Report 2018-2020 notes that ‘’public spending is skewed towards high-end curative services which is both inefficient and inequitable.”

Yet, according to the World Health Organisation, unsafe sanitation is the leading cause of diarrhoeal disease and stunting in children under the age of five.

Unsafe sanitation is also linked to 17 per cent of all workplace deaths, and a $260 billion loss in productivity and school absences due to lack of access to good toilets.

Results from the Nairobi Faecal Waste Flow Diagram, which illustrates the flow of faecal waste from the household to treatment site, reveal that an urgent response is needed: not all the faecal waste in the sewer system is making it to the treatment plants, and well over half of waste from non-sewered systems is unaccounted for.

Only 40 per cent of Nairobi residents are connected to sewers; 66 per cent of all faecal waste in the county goes back to the environment and only eight per cent of all faecal waste in the sewer system makes it to treatment plants.

For residents who are not connected to sewers, forms of on-site sanitation are the alternative, but challenges with where to legally take this waste within reasonable distance, and the stigma associated with manual management of the waste are a huge impediment.

A sober approach working to ensure budgetary allocations that chip away at the problem, and designing or supporting programmes in urban sanitation will ensure a healthier and more nutritionally secure nation.

Ms Juma is the communications and policy officer at the African Population and Health Research Center