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MALAWI: Enterprising Approach Underlies New Sanitation Campaign

Claire Ngozo

LILONGWE, Mar 22 2011 (IPS) - The market can do better: a sanitation and hygiene campaign to be launched in Malawi plans to apply this tenet to improve cleanliness and public health in the country’s cities.

The campaign, tagged “Sanitation Marketing and Hygiene Promotion”, hopes to promote entrepreneurship in low-income communities at the same time as addressing sanitation and health needs.

Elias Chimulambe, a water and sanitation expert working on the campaign, said Malawi is joining seven other African countries – Benin, Tanzania, Uganda, Senegal, Burkina Faso, Kenya, and Ethiopia – who have already launched their campaigns and are making strides in improving sanitation and in entrepreneurship related to cleanliness.

“It is therefore our hope that as Malawi joins the bandwagon of countries doing good for themselves, it will do so with all the seriousness the task at hand requires,” said Chimulambe.

Up to two-thirds of Malawi’s two million urban residents live in slum conditions without proper sanitation. The campaign comes against the backdrop of poor public hygiene, made worse by a booming urban population and widespread poverty.

Sixty percent of Malawi’s 13 million people live below the poverty line, according to the United Nations.

“Most of the people in the cities of Malawi rely on traditional pit latrines which are shared by several households,” Secretary for Irrigation and Water Development Sandram Maweru told a Mar. 9 press conference. “Only 30 percent of the people have access to an improved pit latrine. Only 20 percent of the total urban population uses toilets linked to septic tanks.”

He said good hygiene practices have not been widely adopted by residents; surveys by the Lilongwe and Blantyre water boards found less than 10 percent of the urban population regularly wash their hands before cooking or eating.

“Just between 35 to 50 percent of the residents ever washed hands after visiting the toilet,” said Maweru.

Applying the energy of the market

The messages are familiar – preaching the merits of improved latrines and stressing that people should always wash their hands with soap in five circumstances: after visiting the toilet, before preparing food, before eating, before breast feeding and after changing soiled nappies.

But what’s new is that the campaign aims to bring about behaviour change in low-income areas by working closely with small and medium-sized business operators.

Blantyre, the commercial capital has 436,000 people living in areas poorly-served by water and sewerage lines; the capital city, Lilongwe, has a further 400,000. These people are being framed as a large and under-served market.

Chimulambe said sanitation marketing stimulates demand for products, services, or practices to facilitate the ownership of and access to improved sanitation and adoption of safe hygiene practices.

“At the heart of this campaign is the call to behaviour change as a platform for generating demand for improved sanitation and hygiene facilities and practice,” said Chimulambe.

The campaign will include support for masons and other small business entrepreneurs.

“it is important to note that before stimulating demand, there is need to have robust supply, otherwise you run risk of creating demand-resistant communities. There is, therefore, a need to understand limitations and opportunities of small businesses,” said Muheya.

Vendors of cement, steel, timber and other materials needed for pit latrines, masons who cast the slabs that cover toilet pits, and shopkeepers who sell soap and water containers are being encouraged to take advantage of the campaign to do more business.

The idea is that building strong demand for improved latrines will drive profits for these parties.

“In the long-term we’re looking at promoting entire industries and adding value to the chain by simply demanding people use improved toilets and wash their hands with soap thereafter,” said Maweru. “Who said there was no money to be made in the business of toilets?”

The campaign is being funded by the World Bank, which is providing financial and technical support to the Malawi Government under the Water and Sanitation Program for Africa (WSP-AF) facility. A grant of US$200,000 has been given towards the promotion to lay ground work for sanitation marketing activities. Additional funding of up to $800,000 will also be made available for scaling up the campaign.