]Why are sanitation facilities like ventilated improved pit (VIP) latrines and other dry toilets so much more expensive in sub-Saharan Africa than in Asia? This report compiles the findings of a multicountry study comparing costs of on-site sanitation infrastructure in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. It attempts to provide answers to the question why hardware costs for on-site sanitation are so much higher in Sub-Saharan Africa than in Asia and examines the main factors that lead to these high costs. The report specifically looks at the capital costs of household-level, on-site sanitation technologies which are prevalent in most cities and rural areas of Africa and Asia. The report does not attempt to quantify software costs (e.g. public support to promote sanitation coverage and create demand).
Engineers and project managers struggle to provide site-specific cost estimates that allow for sound technology decision-making and budget planning in sanitation programming. Estimating capital and operational infrastructure costs is not easy, especially considering all the context-specific and variable factors that determine the total costs. It is notoriously difficult to compare costs of different sanitation facilities as these facilities can be built in different sizes and using different technologies, depending on the number of people they are designed to serve and the level of service they are designed to provide. The authors have decided to focus on the two most widespread on-site technologies found in low-income urban contexts: the VIP latrine and the single pit latrine. This multi-country comparative assessment analyses data obtained from Sandec’s field research between 2012 and 2015 as well as data on the costs of on-site sanitation infrastructure found in related literature. As an output of this study, a simple and adaptable bill of quantities (BoQ) based costing tool was developed (see chapter 3.3.1). [...]