Working Paper

Ecological Sanitation as a Water and Environmental Conservation Technology Option: The Case of Slum Communities in Kampala

“This study explores Ecological Sanitation (EcoSan) as a Water and Environmental Conservation Technology (WECT) for slum communities in Kampala, Uganda. Information presented in this paper results from a research carried out in five slums of Kampala city in Uganda. The major problem addressed by this study is
that close to 800,000 persons in the urban slum of Kampala are facing deplorable water and environmental problems. This coupled with the increasing density of population in these slums and the
swampy geological nature of Kampala, use of pit latrines and flush toilets alone cannot provide city dwellers with a clean and hygienic environment. The results of the study point out strategies that are required to empower vulnerable poor communities with cost sharing skills to run communal water sources and waste management. Results also bring out how implicit attitudes and tacit knowledge must be translated into shared experiences and explicit knowledge, resulting into effective community slum structures for implementing EcoSan technologies.”