Maseru in Lesotho is known for the success of the Urban Sanitation Improvement Team (USIT) programme dating back to the 1980s, which rested on a strong partnership across government, donor agencies, service providers and others. USIT worked with local builders to develop standard VIP designs and construction norms, and conducted highly successful sanitation promotion campaigns to build demand, supported by a loan scheme to assist households to fund their own latrines. By 1995, over 12 000 households in Maseru had installed VIP toilets with USIT support.
Today, USIT survives in highly attenuated form; the programme now resides exclusively in government, yet responsibility for sanitation improvement is highly fragmented and resources are limited. Demographic shifts in Lesotho have seen a surge in demand for rental accommodation in Maseru, with malaene (line houses) mushrooming in poorer suburbs. If these have facilities it is typically a shared latrine in poor condition. Tenants are therefore much less well-catered for than the owner-occupiers that the USIT programme targeted.
Emptying is a service offered by the urban Water and Sewerage Authority (WASA). In 1999, an attempt was made to outsource emptying of both toilet pits and conservancy tanks. The Privatisation Unit within the Ministry of Finance put out a tender, but failed to find a service provider willing to provide this service at a rate that was affordable to Maseru's residents without subsidies. It was also hampered by a lack of reliable data on costs and the market. The tankers mostly empty conservancy tanks: emptying services for pit toilets (some appropriate technology was trialled a few years ago) seem to have largely collapsed, partly due to fragmented oversight within government.
The following link is to the Water and Sanitation Programs review of the USIT programme in Lesotho, which highlights the initial successes of the programme.
A five page note from BPD gives more details.
The full BPD case study that analyses the policy context, service delivery arrangements and prospects for partnership in Maseru can be provided on request by email.