Sanitation services for the urban poor : symposium background paper : IRC symposium : sanitation for the urban poor partnerships and governance, Delft, The Netherlands, 19-21 November 2008

This paper addresses sanitation for the urban poor from a service delivery perspective. It argues that urban sanitation services should consider:

• The entire sanitation chain: confinement (the toilet seat and safe storage under the seat), removal and transportation of faecal sludge, subsequent treatment and disposal or re-use.
• The service delivery process: planning, construction, operation and maintenance, and subsequent renewal of service delivery elements.
• Both hardware and software elements, particularly hygienic behaviour.

The paper examines the broader urban context as well as sanitation specific issues. This paper is central to the symposium – it is designed to draw together some of the key arguments from the main papers being presented and to provoke participants into a response. Two key questions have been formulated to help guide examination of the cases that are to be presented and discussed during the symposium:

• Is the approach or methodology well embedded in the urban environment, so having the potential to be scaled up?
• Whose shit is it, how is it dealt with it and who foots the bill?

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