Using Technology to improve sanitation in Dandora slams

Posted on August 9, 2021 Updated on October 11, 2023

In many towns, cities and peri-urban locations globally, the growth of populations has not been directly proportional to access and growth of essential facilities such as water and sanitation, poor planning, lack of attention, inadequate government support and other factors have deteriorated many urban sanitation systems making them unable to meet the rising demand. The risk of disease outbreaks, groundwater contamination, and sub-standard living conditions have been on the rise as a result.

According to African Population and Health Research Center (APHR, 2020), the growth of urban slums has been one of the defining characteristics of the past decades in the developing world and is expected to rise in many African towns. Hygiene and sanitation in urban slum settlements has been a problem worldwide with more than one quarter of urban population lacking adequate sanitation facilities.

Data from the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics from the 2019 census indicates that more than 4.3 million people live in Nairobi with a majority 2.6 million living in informal settlements within the city county. The data further indicates a majority of the slum residents lack access to piped water, making them rely on expensive informal water vendors. 

Due to the unplanned set up of most of the settlements and illegal pipe networks, water is prone to contamination by overflowing sewages, posing health risks to the population. Over a half of the existing toilets in low-income urban areas are pit latrines which are emptied manually and the contents dumped illegally into the environment. In areas near a river, the toilets are built in a way that directs waste straight into the river, polluting groundwater sources and the Nairobi River’s ecosystem.

According to a World Bank research (2019), Nairobi has the highest annual growth rate compared to other African cities and 75 per cent of the urban population growth is absorbed in informal settlements. This highlights the need for solutions geared towards improving the state of hygiene and sanitation facilities within the slum areas.

Strathmore University’s Research and Innovation Centre-@iLabAfrica in collaboration with UN-HABITAT and Liquid Telecom have come up with a technology based project aimed at improving access, coverage and quality of sanitation services in Nairobi’s low income settlement areas.

The project named Integrated Sanitation Management System uses Internet of Things(IoT) Technology to link pit latrines and septic tanks to a central platform collecting data and a process for authorities to improve the existing processes of fecal waste removal, and provide a solution that could potentially address the lack of appropriate sanitation management in Kenya in its slum areas.

Stephen Gitahi, IoT researcher at @iLabAfrica says that the new project will involve the use of sensors installed in different latrines and relaying data to a central data base from where county officials can make data driven decisions on timely emptying of filled latrines or timely repairs for latrines that could have leakages.

“In this project, we have developed a digital prototype that will collect and provide data required to improve the management of pit latrines by the devolved government and building up coordination among the stakeholders involved in sanitation services in low income settlements in Kenya” says Mr. Gitahi.

“The product is a web based application that can be installed on computers and mobile phones, providing the users with real time data on the levels of waste at the latrines septic and early warning signals once the latrine storages are almost filled up to enable timely removal of the waste” adds Mr. Gitahi.

According to Mr. Gitahi, the sanitation project also incorporates geographic positioning technology that will provide exact location of all latrines within a specific slum area for quick responses in times of needed attention on the sanitation platforms.

The Integrated Sanitation Management System has been implemented in Dandora slums and plans are underway to have the project implemented in other low income settlements of Nairobi such as Mathare and Kibera.

According to UN-HABITAT (2018), urbanization has been on the rise globally and is expected to keep on growing, the number of urban population living in slum areas in Nairobi is expected to double in the next 15 years, this calls for relevant intervention measures by governments and other development actors to help improve living standards in informal settlements especially in the areas of hygiene and sanitation.

The outbreak of the covid-19 pandemic and its effects globally has highlighted the importance of simple hygiene and sanitation practices such as hand washing in the management of public health. The adoption of innovative ways of ensuring improved living standards for people living in Nairobi slums should be welcome and supported by all stakeholders as it will go a long way towards enabling a healthy nation.