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Africa Sanitation Dialogue – Beyond Sewers: Empowering Utilities for Non-Sewered Sanitation Services

This dialogue is led by Water & Sanitation for Urban Populations (WSUP) and the Global Water Operators’ Partnerships Alliance (GWOPA). In this dialogue, we will discuss how sanitation services can be scaled up by utilities in the region.

Programme Detail

Starts
Sep 17, 2025

Language

Duration:90 minutes

Start Time:

04:30 GMT+1

Format

Online

Member fee: $0.00

Standard fee: $0.00

Description
Target Audience
Learning Objectives
Learning Format
Related IWA Specialist Groups

Description

The world is alarmingly off-track on the Sustainable Development Goal targets 6.2 and 6.3 – to deliver sanitation for all by 2030. Despite progress, as reported in 2022, only 57% of the world’s population (3.6 billion people) used sanitation services that leave human waste untreated, threatening human and environmental health. Of these, 419 million still practice open defecation. In 2020, only 1/3 of the population (2.6 billion people) used private sanitation facilities connected to sewers from which wastewater was treated, while the rest of the world is connected through onsite sanitation services. In Sub-Saharan Africa, over 80% of the population uses onsite sanitation; however, utilities are not equipped to provide non-sewered sanitation services at a large scale. Over the last decade, public service providers in several cities, especially in low- and middle-income countries, have expanded their mandate to address sanitation challenges, including non-sewered services.

The International Water Association (IWA) recognises the urgent need to address global sanitation challenges. Through its Inclusive Urban Sanitation Initiative, IWA is organising Quarterly Sanitation Dialogues to enhance advocacy, learning, and knowledge exchange on inclusive urban sanitation.

This dialogue is led by Water & Sanitation for Urban Populations (WSUP) and the Global Water Operators’ Partnerships Alliance (GWOPA). In this dialogue, we will discuss how sanitation services can be scaled up by utilities in the region.

Panelists:

Target Audience

Utilities, Local authorities, Local sanitation service providers, Policymakers, Regulators, Urban development practitioners, Researchers, Development partners

Learning Objectives

At the end of this dialogue, participants will be able to:

  • Understand the gaps in urban planning and service provision in informal settlements.
  • Understand the benefits and trade-offs of integrating sewered and non-sewered sanitation (NSS) with utilities, where these exist.
  • Understand the importance of inclusive service mandates that incorporate low-income communities and informal settlements, and how this can be enabled at the policy level.
  • Understand the role of regulatory authorities in supporting utility provision of NSS.
  • Understand what utility provision of NSS involves in practice in terms of institutional change, systems, human resourcing, private sector engagement, and financial resources.
  • Gain inspiration from real-world examples of African utilities now embracing their mandate for NSS.

Learning Format

Related IWA Specialist Groups

Urban Water Management
Non-Sewered Sanitation (NSS)

The next-generation toilet technologies are on their way and are shifting away from the current “flush-and-dispose” and “drop-and-store” models. It is envisaged that the new generation of technologies will be point-of-use or beneficiation generation systems which aim to eliminate human waste at source. New systems will incorporate in it the water sensitive design planning and thinking. It aims to be smart, working off-the-grid and treating human wastes at source, eliminating pathogens, and possibly generating products of beneficial value. The next generation toilets could also be coupled with the latest developments in online monitoring and sensing.

The main purpose of this newly established Specialist Group is to bring together experts, scientists and practitioners with experience in FSM and non-sewered sanitation - to generate, collate and disseminate knowledge in the area worldwide. This knowledge aims to guide sanitation service provision in a sustainable way thus improving the quality of life for millions of people using on-site sanitation systems and therefore contributes towards achieving SDG target 6.2. In this effort, we will work closely with other Specialist Groups, including Resource Orientated Sanitation, Sludge Management and Sanitation and Water Management in Developing Countries, in areas where there will be interest in jointly furthering knowledge and understanding of FSM.

The NSS SG focus is on but not limited to the following areas:

  • Baseline data: building a data base of FS accumulation rates and characteristics,
  • Educational: capacity building in local context, technical and non-technical competency to deal with non-sewered sanitation.
  • Technical: Promoting and sharing the science on new and novel treatment process, design requirements and techniques.
  • Institutional: strengthening governance and reform to facilitate non-sewered sanitation; supporting business model and incentives; paradigm shift to technical solutions that recover resources (water, energy, nutrients). Building a new sanitation circular economy.
  • Social: stimulate behavior change and acceptance; developing awareness and educational products; consideration of vulnerable groups, which are adversely affected by the lack of appropriate sanitation.
  • Communication: It is of the utmost importance to communicate all the above in an effective, approachable and convincing manner in order to achieve a desired global impact.
  • Training and Capacity Building: developing a new cohort of practitioners and specialists.
  • Group activities:
  • - Organisation of workshops at key international events (IWA World Water Congress; IWA Development Congress; World Water Forum) to report on progress and content of NSS Specialist Group and to raise awareness of the work amongst international audience.
  • - Organisation of international and regional specialised conferences on NSS as a Specialist Group Participation in workshop / presentations in world regions where it is most needed (developing countries) to disseminate experience and knowledge within the NSS and promote the development and implementation of some of NSS innovative and novel technologies appropriate for the local context.
  • - Communications and interactions between NSS members with IWA Connect.
  • - Promotion of science, technology and practice development of the NSS field through The Source magazine, partners platforms, short articles, group newsletters, special publications etc.
  • - Establishing a new community of practice which include innovators, scientists, entrepreneurs, policy makers and municipal officials.


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