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Impending Disaster or Strategic
Opportunity? Small Town Sanitation – It’s a Big Issue...
Thursday 21 August
Afternoon Seminar
Convenors: Building Partnerships for Development in Water and Sanitation (BPD), WaterAid and International Water Association (IWA)
Event Summary and Conclusions
With presentations from a range of different sector actors, this seminar explored current thinking on sanitation in the small town context and asked the question: is this an impending disaster and or a strategic opportunity for the sector? Speakers looked at what is already known and documented about small towns and sanitation and what is still unknown. Presentations were then made on current programmes of work delivering sanitation in small towns. These perspectives served as the basis for an interactive plenary discussion affording an opportunity for a broader set of views and experiences to be shared.
Key themes emerged during the session pointing to future areas of research. It was clear that there remains much that is unknown about small towns from the demographic trends to the current state of sanitation services. Although there is much experience out there, little has been documented and much of the literature that exists is dominated by water concerns rather than sanitation. Experience from different regions highlighted the importance of acknowledging the heterogeneity of small towns. What constitutes a ‘small town’ differed significantly from one region to another with significant differences across a series of variables from population size and density to institutional structures.
So, impending disaster or strategic opportunity? There was consensus that the demographic trends do suggest that sanitation in small towns is a looming concern but that this is, at the same time, a strategic opportunity for the sector. The main conclusion from the seminar is that there is a need for the development of a more comprehensive, detailed picture of what small towns look like now and what is currently happening in the sanitation sector to inform a strategic response to the challenge presented.
Seminar Programme 13:30-17:00, Room K22/K23
Speakers
• Mr. Adegnika Félix, PDM – Partenariat pour le développement, Bénin
• Dr. Darren Saywell, International Water Association, the Netherlands
• Dr. Gordon McGranahan, International Institute for Environment and Development, UK
•Ms. Rachel Cardone, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, USA
Facilitators
• Mr. David Schaub-Jones, BPD Water and Sanitation, South Africa
• Mr. Oliver Cumming, WaterAid, UK
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