sustainability-11-06706 (1).pdf (574.45 kB)
Integrating basic urban services for better sanitation outcomes
journal contribution
posted on 2019-11-28, 13:45 authored by Rebecca ScottRebecca Scott, Pippa Scott, Peter Hawkins, Isabel Blackett, Andrew Cotton, Alix LereboursRapid urbanization in developing countries demands better integration of planning and delivery of basic services if cities are to be sustainable, healthy and safe. Sanitation improvements are commonly overlooked as investments go towards more visible services such as water supplies and drainage networks. The Sustainable Development Goal for sanitation and hygiene currently remains severely off-track. This paper presents the findings of a Delphi method survey to identify expert consensus on both why and how to integrate sanitation, by which we mean both sewered and non-sewered sanitation services, into other basic urban services (including water supply, drainage, energy and roads) to achieve better sanitation and broader development outcomes, notably for poor citizens. Consensus on why integration is important highlights the physical interdependence of services, where neglect of one service can compromise gains from another investment or service. Consensus on how includes actions to address political priorities and leadership; governance and capacity constraints; clearer planning, procurement and financing mechanisms; and adopting incremental approaches matched to wider urban strategies. It was suggested that achieving these actions would improve accountability, monitoring and service level audits. Experience from previous integrated urban programmes should be incorporated into formulating new sanitation service agreements across all service types. Supported by better-informed dialogue and decision-making between those responsible for urban sanitation and for associated basic services, we suggest integrated and incremental approaches will enable more sustainable urban services planning to achieve ‘quality of life’ outcomes for poor urban residents.
History
School
- Architecture, Building and Civil Engineering
Published in
SustainabilityVolume
11Issue
23Publisher
MDPI AGVersion
- VoR (Version of Record)
Rights holder
© The authorsPublisher statement
This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).Acceptance date
2019-11-23Publication date
2019-11-27Copyright date
2019eISSN
2071-1050Publisher version
Language
- en
Depositor
Ms Rebecca Scott. Deposit date: 28 November 2019Article number
6706Usage metrics
Categories
No categories selectedLicence
Exports
RefWorks
BibTeX
Ref. manager
Endnote
DataCite
NLM
DC