Four new communal sanitation blocks have been completed in Chamanculo ‘C’ – poor urban area of Maputo – providing access to approximately 400 people. These sanitation blocks are equipped with water for on-selling by a private kiosk operator and sinks for washing clothes. The waste discharges to a septic tank alongside the unit and overflows to a soak pit.
Many see communal sanitation options as risky – quite rightly because communal sanitation options are known to fail without proper support from municipal authorities or other mandated authority for non-sewered sanitation. That’s why effective institutional and stakeholder arrangements have been set-up to ensure sustainability of these services over the long term. This includes a Memorandum of Understanding between the community management committee and the municipal authority clearly setting out roles and responsibilities of both parties.
The operation and maintenance arrangements of these sanitation blocks are being monitored over the next 12 months (at least) to learn from the proposed communal management structure. This includes a indicator recording the number of times the services have been inspected by a representative from the municipal authority.
