Abstract
Implementation of the right to sanitation refers to creating an environment where all people are able to access sanitation facilities which are physically available, safe, accessible, acceptable, affordable, together with the necessary services for managing the faecal matter until safe disposal or re-use. In urban areas, it is usually the responsibility of the households and local government agencies. However, in Kenya, Uganda, and Rwanda, like many other developing countries, sanitation in urban informal settlements is mismanaged and unregulated causing inadequate environmental situations and exposing residents to health risks. This research was undertaken in a larger research project known as the 3K-SAN research project depicting the three cities; Kisumu in Kenya, Kampala in Uganda and Kigali in Rwanda. Eight selected informal settlements in the 3K-SAN case study cities were investigated on the situation of access to adequate sanitation and corresponding respective government’s legal and institutional frameworks relating to the sanitation sector. The study adopted a mixed method methodology including; household surveys, focus group discussions, in-depth interviews, and deliberative forums, to obtain first hand perspective on the existing sanitation conditions, barriers for assessing the efficacy of approaches and regulatory issues.
The findings are that a diversity of approaches is required, as there are highly variegated environments, barriers, and problems in which the right to sanitation must be actualised, with the emphasis that certain barriers inevitably require governmental measures entailing budgets and other resources. Analysis reveals the right to sanitation does not yet have international law status, however, there are political declarations that suggest that it may become (binding) law in the future. The principal effect of crystallization as international law would be to potentially render breaches of the rule admissible before international courts and tribunals or domestic courts when the constitution transcribes or ‘imports’ international law. The study concludes that there is an urgent need to expedite and strengthen the right to sanitation at the international and national levels given the large-scale lack of adequate sanitation in the world.
The case study countries should provide an ‘enabling environment’ in terms of multi-level governance to spur efforts to solve the barriers to realising adequate sanitation conditions in the case study informal settlements. There is a need to review the existing regulatory frameworks and strategies for sanitation improvements specifically, the most cost-effective and sound measures should be pursued considering the legal, administrative, and logistical problems revealed by the empirical research.