Soweto residents in Mombasa welcome water and sanitation improvement project
Mwanaisha Nuru, a landlady in the Soweto area of Magongo, in the Changamwe subcounty, Mombasa, frequently had to deal with disease outbreaks in her house because of poor sanitation.
She and her tenants used the pit latrine which used to fill often, forcing them to employ the expensive services of a sewage exhauster.
“There was always a constant smell in the house and maggots used to be seen everywhere even when you sprayed some insecticide. There were always flies around,” Nuru said.
However, when she heard of the Safisan Toilets programme, she jumped at the opportunity.
Safisan Toilets is a programme by the Water Sector Trust Fund (WSTF) in partnership with Mombasa Water Supply and Sanitation Company (Mowasco) and the Mombasa county government that seeks to improve sanitation in low-income urban areas.
The project entails convincing house owners and landlords to construct new toilets or rehabilitate their existing ones and reward them with a subsidy of Sh20,000 for a newly constructed toilet and Sh15,000 for a rehabilitated one.
It involves replacing the pit latrines with modern toilets and connecting them to the proper sewer system.
