The importance of securing adequate and sustainable sanitation provision for many of those
living in the towns and cities of the Global South is widely recognised. The Millennium
Development Goals for Namibia highlighted this need with the ambition that half of those
lacking adequate sanitation would be reached by 2015.
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Namibia also developed a National
Sanitation Strategy (2009) with the mission “to provide, with minimal impact on the
environment, acceptable affordable and sustainable sanitation services for Namibian
households.” The vision statement is “a healthy environment and improved quality of life by
providing sanitation services for urban and rural households.”
Needs are particularly acute in the urban context where high population density make a lack
of adequate sanitation particularly unpleasant and unsafe. Namibia also experienced an
outbreak of Polio for the first time, within the Okahandja Park informal settlements in
Windhoek in 2006 where the community were not using any sanitation facilities. The majority
of the cases occur in these settlements. In countries in where the urban population is
growing due to migration and/or population dynamics, there is extra pressure on families
seeking adequate and affordable accommodation. In the absence of adequate infrastructure
and provision for waste management, healthy options for sanitation are lacking. In this urban
setting people are often compelled to find a solution for their own sanitation needs.