Half of humanity now lives in cities and it is anticipated that within two decades nearly 60% of the world’s population will be urban dwellers. Urbanisation is most rapid in developing countries and the challenges this presents are well documented. Poor sanitation for inner-city slum dwellers is the norm rather than the exception, impacting human health and environmental safety. Water-borne diseases such as diarrhoea are prevalent, and women, girls and children are adversely affected.

This project provides free, clean, safe sanitation through the use of mobile ecosan (composting) toilets, which can be introduced into the smallest streets of the busiest slums, offering a low maintenance, self-contained system for managing human waste. Using a social enterprise model, the project is sustained through the sale of the compost by-product, creating livelihoods through the employment of maintenance staff, and investing profits into rolling out the initiative to new neighbourhoods.