Questions/Answers

Due to the fast urbanisation and low investments in sanitation infrastructure, the number of underserved urban residents increases steadily in Kenya. On-site sanitation system predominates but lack of sustainable faecal sludge management remains a key contributor to low access to sanitation services. The Water Sector Trust Fund (WSTF) is a Kenyan State Corporation mandated to finance water and sanitation services for poor and underserved communities. It has initiated a nationwide intervention to improve access to household sanitation in low income urban areas through a programme called UBSUP: Up-scaling Basic Sanitation for the Urban Poor. The programme is based on a scaling up approach and covers the entire sanitation service chain from toilet to treatment. The activities are implemented on the ground through licensed water utilities (WSPs) who receive funding after applying to calls for proposals launched by the WSTF. Households of low-income areas are encouraged to build improved toilets through effective social marketing and post-construction incentives. Emptying and transport services of the faecal sludge are provided by private vacuum tankers registered with the WSPs or by the WSPs themselves. To ensure completion of the sanitation service chain, UBSUP supports the construction of a treatment facility for faecal sludge and waste water, run by the Water Service Provider. The facility is referred to as a Decentralised Treatment Facility or DTF and are established conveniently in the vicinity of the town to reduce transport distances. It is a small scale treatment plant based on biological treatment which doesn’t require electricity nor chemical input.

The overall objectives of UBSUP are to: • Improve access to basic household sanitation in low income urban areas of Kenya. • Create demand for on-site sanitation (household toilets) • Cover the entire sanitation service chain from toilet to treatment. • Provide sustainable sanitation to 400,000 people by end of 2018. • Create business opportunities in terms of toilet construction, faecal sludge collection, transport, and treatment services.

UBSUP is a nationwide intervention to improve access to household sanitation in poor urban areas in Kenya. This initiative targets the poorest and the most vulnerable for whom sanitation is not a priority. The Water Services Providers (WSPs) are responsible for urban water and sanitation service provision, and therefore, are the main partner of the Water Sector Trust Fund to implement UBSUP. The WSPs are provided with technical assistance, capacity building and infrastructures to develop sanitation services in marginalised and underserved areas.

Thanks to the construction and operation of Decentralised Treatment Facilities across the country, Up-scaling Basic Sanitation for the Urban Poor (UBSUP) supports the Water Service Providers (WSP) in providing treatment services in areas where treatment or safe disposal options for faecal sludge and wastewater were initially non-existent. Moreover, by increasing the demand for improved toilets at plot levels, UBSUP stimulate the market for emptying and transport services, which can be undertaken by the private sector or by the WSP.

The Constitution of Kenya 2010 lays down the framework for development of the sanitation sector which guarantee the right of every person to “reasonable standards of sanitation,” and “a clean and healthy environment”. In practice, however, the investment in network infrastructure is failing to keep up with the growing demand in urban areas, generating a large sanitation infrastructure and services deficit. UBSUP has identified these gaps and acted upon them to ensure that the entire sanitation service chain is covered from emptying of toilets to treatment of faecal sludge with possibility of sludge and effluent reuse.

Kenya has a population of 46 million people out of which 25% live in urban areas with an urban growth rate of 4% per year. Around one third of the urban population lives below the poverty line. Most of them are residents of approximately 2,000 urban low income areas or slums country wide. Women and children are particularly affected by inadequate sanitation in urban low income areas. UBSUP targets this segment of the population and therefore has a significant impact on vulnerable population with regards to improved hygiene and living conditions in general.

The Up-scaling Basic Sanitation for the Urban Poor (UBSUP) initiative is considered to be innovative in several respects. The scaling-up concept is the process of reaching sustainable access to water and sanitation services at broad scale through easily replicable standard projects (infrastructures, processes, activities). The approach has been tried and tested for the first time in Kenya by WSTF with the UBSUP programme. The second innovation concerns the type of technology used. UBSUP supports the implementation of a new type of treatment plant called DTF (Decentralised Treatment Facility) to treat the faecal sludge coming from latrines and septic tanks at a decentralised level. The DTF is a modular facility with a standard design that can treat up to 23m3 daily. It comprises of six modules which provide biological anaerobic treatment and run by gravity (no energy or chemical input). Currently another DTF model is being tested to offer a solution to areas with no appropriate slope to accommodate the gravity-based system. It is an aerobic treatment facility that operates with electricity (pumping and aeration) and can treat up to 75m3 per day.

UBSUP is an original concept that was developed in 2011 by the Water Sector Trust Fund with the support of GIZ (German Development Cooperation) who both wanted to develop an innovative project in order to reach sustainable access to sanitation services at broad scale. While covering the entire sanitation service chain (from toilet to treatment), UBSUP incorporates a social marketing concept, technical concepts for infrastructure, emptying and transportation as well as business and financing models. The concept addresses trade-offs between demand-orientation and minimum service quality standards, cost efficiency and long-term serviceability of the infrastructure, to eventually achieve lasting economic, social and environmental impacts.

UBSUP started in 2011 and is targeting 400,000 beneficiaries by the end of the current phase of the programme. The total investment cost for the UBSUP initiative is 18.4 million Euros from the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Government of Kenya. The initiative has proven to be very cost efficient with a per-capita cost of less than US$ 50, including the construction of 9,700 constructed toilets and seven decentralised sludge treatment facilities as of July 2017. The Water Sector Trust Fund has allocated a team of technical, social and financing experts to implement and monitor the activities on the ground. This team is supported by a team of technical advisors from GIZ until the end of 2018.

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Scaling up access to drinking water and sanitation in low-income areas is a core objective of GIZ´s work in the water sector. In light of this, in 2011 GIZ decided to provide technical support to the Water Sector Trust Fund in order to develop, test and implement the UBSUP concept. Following the success of the initiative, GIZ decided to form a Community of Practice (CoP) on Scaling up Access, among the different GIZ Water and Sanitation Programmes worldwide. This global network seek to effectively contribute to the expansion of water and sanitation services at broad scale. The UBSUP concept is used as a pioneering example to guide the CoP members in developing their own Scaling up concept. Until now, GIZ has organized and conducted assessments to replicate UBSUP in Burkina Faso, Tanzania, Mali, Zambia and Uganda, with the Water Sector Trust Fund regularly asked to accommodate field visits and interviews for benchmarking studies. A similar concept to UBSUP was implemented at regional level in South Sudan (Yei town) with the support of GIZ. Unfortunately, due to the outbreak of violence, the up-scaling activities were forced to stop in 2016.

UBSUP revolves around a solid business model to achieve long-term viability. Service delivery is driven by the commercial incentive provided by the UBSUP approach. Business opportunities are created in terms of faecal sludge collection, transport and treatment services, but also sale of by-product (fertilizer and soil conditioner) and construction of sanitation infrastructures. Decentralized faecal sludge treatment facilities offer a competitive option and alternative to conventional centralized wastewater treatment plants. Moreover, Water Sector Trust Fund encourages the involvement of the private sector in the project as it has proven to be an effective partner in delivering effective and flexible collection and transport services.

The UBSUP initiative is meant to operate beyond project horizons as it is anchored in the sector institutions. The Water Act 2016 gives the Water Sector Trust Fund the legal mandate to finance the development of water and sanitation services in marginalised and underserved areas through the Water Services Providers. In terms of accountability and transparency, rigorous monitoring and evaluation enables WSTF to report on actual numbers of beneficiaries reached with the funding. In addition, WSTF reports to the public on an annual basis and WSTF funded investments can be tracked down on the MajiData website.

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The UBSUP initiative was evaluated in 2016 by the GIZ Monitoring and Evaluation Unit who articulated its progress evaluation report around the following themes: Relevance (are they doing the right thing), Effectiveness (will they achieve the project’s objective), Efficiency (are the objectives being achieved cost-effectively), and Sustainability (are the positive results durable). In 2017 the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation contracted Innovations for Poverty Action (research and policy non-profit) to conduct an outcome verification exercise meant to generate a complete database of the UBSUP toilets to be used for survey sampling in 15 regions.

The UBSUP initiative was evaluated rated very successful by the GIZ Monitoring and Evaluation Unit (with a total of 15 out of 16 points). The project is consistent with national strategies and UBSUP was considered to be a driving force in the water sector reform processes in Kenya. The activities implemented by UBSUP will, in all probabilities, make a positive contribution towards long-term overarching results. The upscaling approach and the related broad impact point to an efficient use of resources. UBSUP displays a large number of relevant results at outcome level (e.g. 70% of the 2,000 women surveyed have detected a significant improvement in alignment sanitation services with their needs), however, the evaluation identified a need for consolidation with regards to the commissioning of some of the decentralised treatment facilities that are still under construction. The Outcome Verification Report from IPA reported that 92% of the UBSUP toilets were still in use 12 months after construction, 94% of them were cleaned, the average number of users per toilet was 5.42 ± 4.11, only 8.7% of the UBSUP have been emptied so far, and that the average amount spent by the landlord for a toilet was KSH 26,015.83 while the average post-construction incentive received from UBSUP was KSH 15,240.56.

The following indicators were specified during the course of the GIZ evaluation and constitute the foundation for measuring effectiveness and evaluating the impact of the initiative: - The project’s objectives and strategic approach make a significant contribution to resolving the core problems facing the largely poor target groups in poor urban areas, to ensuring access to adequate sanitation. - Basic sanitary facilities are used by the population in a sustainable and equitable manner in the (peri) urban areas supported by the project. - Mechanisms for broad impact are intrinsic in the project. Central actors in the water sector are incorporated, which guarantees upscaling approaches. - The alignment of sanitation services with the needs of women living in poor districts supported by the project has improved by 30%.

The implementation approach is to be integrated into the water sector policies, institutions and procedures through a multi-level engagement which builds upon the strengths and weaknesses of all sector stakeholders. In order to achieve successful upscale, it was critical for UBSUP to engage various actors from the preparatory stage to the full operationalisation. The implementation of the UBSUP activities on the ground are delegated to the Water Services Providers (WSPs) which are the driving force of UBSUP. The WSPs are given the responsibility to form a project task team composed of leaders of different affiliations (political, religious, representation of marginalised groups, and any other dominant influencer in the community) to disseminate information about the initiative, create ownership at the local level and create a multi-stakeholder baseline for the project’s implementation. That way, once the project is being implemented, the WSPs receive direct support from the relevant actors: Public Health Officer for law enforcement, County government for land, chiefs and religious leader for sensitization and promotion, etc. At a national level, the Water Sector Trust Fund engage the Water Services Regulatory Board (WASREB), a Water Services Regulator and National Environment Management Authority and (NEMA) a Kenyan Environmental Authority, on a regular basis for them to contribute to the project. WASREB has been consulted regarding the regulation of on-site sanitation, while NEMA has been informed of the existence of the Decentralised Treatment Facilities in order to revise the existing effluent discharge permit.

Because the sanitation upscaling concept was new to Kenya, the UBSUP initiative was implemented in successive stages that allowed inclusion of lessons learned. This prevented waste of resources from implementing unviable concepts. 1. National up-scaling works best within sector institutions, which provide grounds for proven concepts to be replicated in different areas. UBSUP uses WSTF’s financing mechanisms, complies with policies and regulations defined at a national level and implements through WSPs at county levels. 2. Tried and tested concepts influence policy. Based on empirical evidence UBSUP made a significant contribution to the Kenya’s Environmental Sanitation and Hygiene Policy (KESH). 3. A range of technology options in terms of toilets, emptying, treatment and reuse options, is needed to cater for different socio-cultural and economic contexts in areas of implementation. 4. Contrary to the common belief that the poor are not willing to pay for sanitation services, there is a willingness to pay for quality services, as long as appropriate sanitation systems are in place and Public Health policies are enforced. To sustain the momentum towards meeting universal sanitation needs, the programme has incorporated lessons learnt and is lobbying the government and other funding sources for scaling up.