ABSTRACT
There is a growing consensus among scholars and decision makers that contemporary waste and sanitation service provision in urban East Africa fails to meet the requirements of public health and environmental quality. With population growth rates in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda of around 3% for the period 2005–2015 (Oosterveer 2009) and even higher growth rates in the urban centres of these countries, it is clear that even if existing infrastructures were able to serve the current urban population, they would be not sufficient in the near future. It seems impossible to pinpoint one particular reason for this failing service provision. Explanations have been collected from historical analysis (i.e., Abbott 2012; Nilsson 2006), technology assessments (Letema 2012), and studies of governance from colonial to contemporary times (Oosterveer 2009).
