The Challenges of Sanitation in Developing Counties - Evidenced from Fourteen Studied Towns

As in many other developing countries, urbanization together with population growth worsens the water supply and sanitation problems of Ethiopia, with a water supply deficit of 41%. Using Ethiopia as a case representative of rapidly developing countries in the Global South struggling with water supply and sanitation management, the objective of this study was to examine the challenges of sanitation in Ethiopia, focusing on 14 towns located under different climatic conditions. Data from the studied towns were collected through households survey, Focus Group Discussion (FGD), Key Informant Interview (KII) and Physical observation. FGD was conducted with a small group of people comprised of influential elders, women's representative, youths' representative, health extension workers, environmental experts, water users forum representatives from the local community, local administration managers, local development representatives, school officers, water supply and sewerage enterprise experts, and sanitation and green development experts. The face-to-face KII was performed with key stakeholders including the town's department of water supply and sewerage, environment, sanitation management and greenery development, health, education, trade and industry, finance and development, infrastructure, urban planning and the city administration (or municipality). The participatory formal personal observations with representatives from the municipality who have knowledge on the existing sanitation problematic areas, public toilets, communal toilets, solid and liquid waste dumping sites, schools, health facilities and drains were made by the researcher. The findings revealed that poor water supply, poor and inadequate toilet facilities, poor toilet facility emptying practices, poor community perceptions on sanitation management, inadequate emptying services, absence of wastewater dumping site, nonexistence of integration among the different components of sanitation, insufficient collaboration among potential stakeholders, divergences between the existing population and sanitation system, and inadequate financial resources were key challenges of sanitation management.  Of the 14 studied towns the average water deficit was found  35%, and the average households with no toilet facilities were 17%, with flushed toilets 20%, about 5% practiced open defecation, only 42% of the households emptying wastewaters using vacuum trucks, about 37% of the households dump wastewater outside of their premises, only four towns have their own vacuum trucks, no town possessed wastewater dumping site, and the different components of sanitation were managed separately without integration. Moreover, the collaboration among the potential stakeholders of sanitation management was poor, and the population grew in opposite direction to the required sanitation facilities. Surprisingly, the finance allocated to sanitation management was the poorest of the other municipal services. Finally, it is recommended further study to be conducted on the feasibility of sustainable sanitation management as they may revert the challenges of sanitation management in developing countries .