International - Sanitation

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Sanitation

"UDDT at rural area (5984471812)" by SuSanA Secretariat - via Wikimedia Commons 

Sanitation in informal settlements: A networked Problem

Sanitation is a challenge in all parts of the world. Developed nations continually face challenges of growing populations and maintaining working systems, but developing nations face these issues and more. According to the article produced by Colin Mcfarlane for IIED many common sanitation challenges include perception of sanitation as a private good, misplaced community and national priorities, political will, unaccountable public departments, education, and discrimination. These challenges are not independent of each other and they must be conceptualized within the context of the lives of the urban poor.

Mcfarline’s main thesis is a belief that “if sanitation solutions are to work, they must be rooted in […] contexts, lives, and perception of the poor.” Citing his multi-country analysis, they found solutions must be context-specific. Thus global initiatives need to be location specific and “understanding the context and challenges of a particular group in particular cities” will make for a more effective approach.

What is most interesting concept here is that of sites of entitlement as a reflection of moral economies. Sites of entitlement are areas in which a groups’ understanding of their entitlement, or lack-there-of, is dictated by their every day experiences, interactions, and relations with other people, the government, and other systems. Moral economies are a groups’  understanding of what the state should provide verse what other actors (private sector or NGOs) should provide for access and maintenance; in this case, specifically referring to sanitation systems.

He states “[Moral economies] are made socially and [are] subject to change through different individual circumstances, collective struggles, and changing conditions within and beyond neighborhoods”. This idea of moral economies as reflective of a specific communities experience is important. One could imagine communities in urban New York USA to have entirely different needs, wants, and experiences from communities in rural Louisiana. Why, then, is our approach to global aid different? Why is there continual persistence in the belief of copy and paste methodology?

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The article is specific to urban sanitation, but this is an important lens for environmental engagement and community development as a whole. As is the case with successful urban sanitation projects, the larger umbrella of development would benefit from a networked process approach that is geographically and contextually specific. Development viewed through the scope of sites of entitlement influenced by moral economies that cater to and engage with specific communities based on their needs will make for better development.