Navigating heterogenous sanitation configurations: how off-grid technologies are worked and reworked by users

Keywords: off-grid, heterogeneous, configurations
Session Type: Virtual Paper Abstract
Day: Saturday
Session Start / End Time: 2/26/2022 02:00 PM (Eastern Time (US & Canada)) - 2/26/2022 03:20 PM (Eastern Time (US & Canada))
Room: Virtual 66

Abstract

A range of innovative off-grid technologies have been developed and deployed to improve sanitation in developing cities. While advances have been made to achieve the Sustainable Development Goal of sanitation for all, challenges remain. For example, at times, gaps between designs and deployed technologies and the needs or wants of users. In this context, urban residents reconfigure technologies to meet their diverse sanitation preferences. In this study, we explore off-grid technologies as heterogeneous infrastructure configuration of people, toilets, roles, responsibilities, costs and benefits. We investigate reasons for the use of technologies and how they have been adapted for two sites in Kampala through interviews and Focus Group Discussions. In the first site, struggles with costs and maintenance, flush handles were replaced with manual pouring. Participants reported attunement and willingness to work with the reconfigured infrastructure. In the second site, a bio-fill toilet with separate chambers for ‘long and short calls’ was placed at in the market. Not long after, only one was working and a much lower than anticipated use. Here, availability of other good, workable and proximate options influenced users against the bio-fill. In sum, we use these cases to think through heterogeneous infrastructure configurations, including the ways that technologies can be reconfigured and the ways connection to other spaces and infrastructure shapes use. We hope to further ongoing inquiries into the use, expansion, improvement and regulation of heterogeneity for urban sanitation.