Sanitation for Cities and Towns 115
Urban community sanitation
Not long ago, Yoff was a typical West African fishing village outside of Dakar,
the capital city of Senegal. Families lived in compounds connected by walking
paths and open spaces. But as Dakar grew and swallowed Yoff, it became part
of a large urban area with an international airport and a lot of automobiles.
As the town grew, many houses installed flush toilets connected to open pits
where the sewage sat and bred disease. Other people, too poor to afford toilets,
used open sandy areas. But with many people living close together, this quickly
became a health problem.
A town development committee came together to solve the sanitation
problem. They began by looking at the resources they had: strong community
networks, skilled builders, and people committed to keeping village life.
They also had some new ideas about ecological sanitation.
In the village, houses were grouped around open common areas where
people could gather and talk. After talking to many villagers, the committee
made a plan to use this open area for a sanitation system that would make the
area more attractive, rather than uglier. Instead of promoting household toilets
and underground sewage tanks, they would promote community ecological
sanitation.
The committee worked with residents to build urine-diverting dry toilets.
Each set of toilets would be shared by the whole compound. The urine
would run through pipes into beds of reeds. The feces, after being dried out,
would be used to fertilize trees. All of this would help to keep the village green.
Local masons and builders were hired to construct the toilets and to maintain
the common areas.
This urban sanitation project not only prevented health problems, it helped
to preserve the way the people of Yoff wanted to live.
A Community Guide to Environmental Health 2012