ABSTRACT
Sanitation programmes in Lesotho, Benin and elsewhere have trained local community workers to act as door-to-door promoters and sales agents, and linked them to local businesses, not only to build latrines, but also to provide services. An economic cost comparison can be useful for showing up distortions which are unnecessarily favourable to one or other type of system, but which can be corrected by changes in government policy. The sewered pour-flush system, which can eventually include a low-volume, cistern-flush toilet for added user convenience, has an equally high standard of hygiene, and has advantages over conventional sewerage; it requires less water for operation and it can be reached by a staged improvement of several different sanitation technologies. Thus sanitation programme planners can confidently select one of these ‘baseline’ technologies in the knowledge that, as economic status and sullage flows increase, it can be upgraded in a planned sequence of incremental improvements to a sophisticated ‘final’ solution.
