Free public toilets key to improving access to just sanitation

By Kelvin Haule and Victoria Lyimo

Come 2030, the world will mark the end of Sustainable Development Goals (SGD). The 2022 Tanzania Demographic and Health Survey (TDHS) shows that 55 percent of the country’s population had access to basic sanitation services, 18 percent had limited access, 18 percent used unimproved toilets, while nine percent practised open defecation (OD).

Also, the National Panel Survey (2020/21) shows that 9.5 percent of households in Tanzania had no toilets. This shows that Tanzania is still far from achieving SDG 6.2, which aims to achieve access to adequate and equitable sanitation and hygiene for all and end OD by paying attention to the needs of women, girls and those in vulnerable situations.

While a number of factors make realisation of SGD 6.2 difficult, including financial challenges, inadequate infrastructure and shortage of human resources for supply of services, user fees are also a stumbling block.

User fees for public toilets at bus terminals, markets and public spaces such as recreational centres are institutionalised or used to regulate access to services, enhance market efficiency and cater for maintenance expenses. Users are compelled to pay between Sh200 and Sh300 ($0.073-$0.11) per use.

The daily costs for toilet use in these public places may even be higher depending on number of times a person uses the facilities. Whereas, user fees may be needed to support the quality of service provision, they pull back efforts meant to achieve just and inclusive sanitation.

People incapable of paying these costs are prevented from using public toilets. They end up resorting to OD or persevering until they reach a convenient place. Emphasising on the gendered impacts of user fees for toilet accessibility, Siebert and Mbise (2019) published a paper titled Toilets Not Taxes: Gender Inequality in the Dar es Salaam City Markets.

They concluded that women are especially impacted in the use of public toilets because they pay more user fees than men. In fact, the impacts of user fees on just sanitation translate into denial of basic rights, leading to environmental pollution and spread of diseases due to OD. Economically, the government spends more on treatment of diseases related to sanitation injustices.

As the world prepares to mark World Toilet Day (Toilets: A place for Peace) on November 19, a need persists to revert to fee-free public toilets in public spaces such as markets, bus terminals and community gardens. Also, free public toilets should be constructed in places such as informal settlements where members cannot afford to construct improved toilets and depend on crude pit latrines or have no toilets at all.

The advantages of this policy includes reducing OD in areas with many people. Secondly, it guarantees users of accessible services and contributes to achievement of SGD 6.2. Thirdly, it promotes healthy behaviours and prevents the spread of communicable diseases related to poor sanitation practices, including OD. Lastly, it reduces government’s expenditures on the treatment of diseases associated with sanitation deficiencies.

However, it must be made clear that fee-free public toilets are not free of challenges. They are costly in terms of establishment, hard to operate and expensive to construct.  Such facilities are usually poorly managed and cleanliness is hardly maintained. Therefore, in order for this policy to succeed it needs to be integrated in national and regional sanitation and health systems.

Fostering a community ownership approach among service users (community involvement) during the mobilisation and development stages could help in promoting acceptance of the policy, increase responsibility, self-control and sustainability of the policy.

The government has come up with the National Water Sector Development Strategy (2007-2025) and the 2017 National Sanitation Campaign (NSC). As a result, OD decreased from 16 percent in 2010 to nine percent in 2022 and more than three quarters (75 percent) of households in Tanzania are using improved toilets (TDHS, 2022).

To decrease OD at markets and auction places through a fee-free toilet policy, the government must take the lead in its design, implementation and monitoring. Users must also be sensitised on sustainable use and facility maintenance.

Dr Kelvin Haule is a lecturer at the University of Dodoma; Victoria Lyimo is a nurse with a master’s degree in public health