Effectiveness of Community Education Programmes and Acceptability of Ecological Sanitation in Low Income Peri-Urban Areas

Abstract

The chapter outlines the lessons learnt from an empirical study of the implementation of Urinary Diversion (UD toilets) in the Umbumbulu peri-urban settlement of Ethekwini municipality. The study found a disjuncture between the community education and promotional programmes used to introduce UD toilet technology, and the norms and practices of the community around issues of human waste handling, disposal, and use. As a result, the acceptability, use, and maintenance of UD toilets and the use of their by-product for food production by the community was low. To this extent, beneficiary exclusion from the sanitation method that they considered ‘proper' viz. water-borne sanitation endured, despite the municipality's efforts. These findings point to the need to devise more effective and robust educational and promotional programmes that reflect an awareness of the community's social and cultural norms, and which compellingly persuade the community to overcome its UD toilet reticence, particularly in the face of the more acceptable water-borne sanitation.