Botswana has made exceptional progress in providing access to sanitation in the past two decades. Today Botswana is one of the very few African countries that have already met the MDG sanitation target and is considered as a role model for country success. However, limited water resources and the inability to cover for further large investments make the current policy to subsidize waterborne sewerage extremely unsustainable. This raises a pressing need to find more cost-efficient and sustainable alternatives. In this thesis, a participatory approach was used to match existing technology options with the local context of a rural and a peri-urban village in Botswana. Workshops, interviews and a qualitative survey showed that most households are provided with basic sanitation, but inadequate planning and budgeting has been provided for management, emptying and maintenance of the existing infrastructure. Deficiencies in sanitation services were found to be larger on institutional than on household level. Resources (financial, human, technical, organizational) are usually available, but their mobilisation is a major challenge. This thesis proposes four systems that address the identified challenges by low technical complexity, high cost-effectiveness and a reduced risk of groundwater contamination. All systems allow for the reuse of greywater and nutrients and do not depend on continuous supply of water. Fossa alterna, the gendarme toilet, greywater tower gardens, diversion and reuse of urine and a jointly used local sludge treatment facility are some of the proposed technologies. It is further emphasized that the creation of public awareness and project ownership is essential for successful implementation of any sanitation system in the local context.

Bibliographic information

Fink, A. (2013). Matching sanitation technology options with the local conditions of Botswana Master Thesis at ETH Zurich, Switzerland

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Botswana

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