Kenya Ni Sisi Campaign has launched the distribution of more than 2,000 units of innovative safe toilet systems in informal settlements in partnership with SATO company. This initiative is aimed at relieving thousands of households in informal settlements from poor sanitation.
The toilets, manufactured by SATO company are expected to fix Kenya’s sanitation crisis by uplifting livelihoods of pit latrine users through conversion of open pit systems to closed ones.
Speaking at the launch of the distribution, SilAfrica Group Executive Director, Akshay Shah said, “We thought the Sato toilet which is such an easy upgrade to convert open pit toilets to closed would help our workers and the communities where they live, because one of the big challenges with low income high density communities is that they use open pit latrine where flies come out and infect everybody with diseases.”
The company also manufactures the SATO latrine pans which are plastic power flush pans that provide an airtight seal. The seal helps to maintain an odor-free sanitary system that prevents flies and insects from coming out when not in use.
This technology uses a trap door fixed underneath the pit latrine to prevent transmission of diseases and help communities to reduce the amount of water used during flushing.
“Open toilets pose significant health risks to the dwellers and contribute to the spread of communicable diseases,” said SATO Business General Manager Africa, Sam Lang’at.
“In Kenya, More than 20 million people lack access to basic sanitation. That is close to half of the country’s population that requires safe sanitation. What that means is that we need to build more than five million toilets to just basically offer this to this population. Can you imagine that on a day like this with COVID-19 pandemic, it’s much more important to provide clean sanitation to our people,” added Lang’at.
SATO toilets can be fixed with basic masonry and plumbing skills, and is expected to offer more job opportunities to households to communities in the informal settlements. So far, SATO’s safe toilets have been installed in Makueni and Murang’a counties.
Under this partnership, a total of 100,000 SATO sanitary toilets will be built in the war against the pandemic. To further support provision of sustainable water solutions the initiative has begun the journey to deploy 6,000 (3,000 ltr) contactless water stations nationwide.