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Published on: 30/10/2012

Sanitation entrepreneurship is a key factor in achieving sustained sanitation for all across the life-cycle chain.  Case studies from locations all over the world have shown that sanitation can be a viable business. It can also be self-sustaining.

Supply services and marketing need to be adjusted to what users like and can pay. To expand their markets, local producers, shops and masons/construction enterprises must often widen their range of options, especially at the lower end, and market them more actively to poor households, and to the women and men decision-makers within these households. For example, training local masons to construct SanPlats, low-cost curved sanitary platforms for pit latrines, originally cast in concrete, but now also made in plastic, had large impacts on sanitation access in Guinea in West Africa.

To widen their range of services, local entrepreneurs must also be helped to become aware that poor households form an interesting sanitation market and that improved sanitation is most effectively marketed via the women to the men, as happened in Vietnam.

Background information and materials referred to in the article:
  • Sanitation entrepreneurship is a key factor in achieving sustained sanitation for all (download list below).
  • Sanitation can be a viable business.
  • Sanitation can also be self-sustaining.
  • Supply services and marketing need to be adjusted to what users like and can pay.
  • Impacts on sanitation access in Guinea in West Africa.
  • Improved sanitation is most effectively marketed via the women to the men, as happened in Vietnam.
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