ABSTRACT
Sub-Saharan Africa is the world’s region with the most urgent problems with respect to sanitation and solid waste management. This book focuses on East Africa, which, in terms of economic conditions, can be seen as representative for the largest part of the Sub-Saharan region. The East African Community (EAC) comprises Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi. These countries are characterised by rapid growth of the population, from a total of 115 million in 2005 to 139 million in 2010, with an expected 237 million by 2030. Across the countries, the percentage of the population living in cities in 2010 ranged from 11% (Burundi) to 26% (Tanzania). Urbanisation is expected to grow further to 20% in Burundi (lowest) and 39% in Tanzania (highest) by 2030. This rapid urbanisation puts an immense pressure on provision of urban infrastructure services, such as water supply, sanitation and solid waste management. The situation is compounded by the bifurcated nature of infrastructure development, with relatively good services in the central and business areas of cities and poor services to those who live in the widely spread informal settlements. Though during the last decade the percentage of people in the EAC countries below the poverty line has slightly decreased, the absolute number is estimated to have increased to 53 million people (38% of the population) in 2010. It is, in particular, the poor dwellers of informal settlements who suffer from the lack of adequate water supply, sanitation and solid waste provision (Society for International Development (SID) 2012: 30).
