Sanitation services for the informal settlements of Cape Town, South Africa

Sanitation coverage in the informal settlements of Cape Town is severely lagging behind. A recent inventory showed that the main barriers to the implementation of proper sanitation systems are unsuitability of the location of many settlements (more than 40% of the sites are located on private land, wetlands and flooding prone areas), high settlement densities (55%), the nonpermanent status of the informal settlements and the distance to existing sewerage networks. The technical feasibility of 14 different sanitation systems was related to these general constraints. The feasibility assessment showed that only chemical toilets and container toilets were systems that could be applied on a larger scale. Both toilet systems, however, have high service and maintenance costs. Based on the evaluation, an innovative pilot project consisting of a mobile sanitation unit (MobiSan1) is being developed and will be piloted.