Respecting Aspiration in the Pursuit of Rights: Embracing CBS as a Transitional Solution

One of Haiti’s only safely managed sanitation options is SOIL’s EkoLakay sanitation service. Our Container Based Sanitation (CBS) model is uniquely suited to provide sanitation access in rapidly urbanizing informal settlements like those found in Cap-Haitien. CBS can be quickly deployed as an immediate intervention to the sanitation crisis and is likely one of, if not the lowest-cost, most readily deployable means of extending sanitation coverage to resource-insecure and low-infrastructure communities.

CBS is an integral part of sanitation systems change in Haiti and an invaluable tool for providing transitional access in urban areas throughout the country, but they are not the end game or a final sanitation solution. CBS is an important part of a longer story towards a future where the human right to safe sanitation is equitable for everyone – which means either the design of an even  higher quality CBS toilet that could be broadly adopted across the socioeconomic spectrum OR a networked sanitation system which ensures the same level of service for all.

SOIL’s Executive Director, Dr. Sasha Kramer, recently took part in a workshop organized by the Container Based Sanitation Alliance (CBSA), the University of the Western Cape and the Water and Research Commission (WRC) on human rights and Container-Based Sanitation where she discussed how her thinking has changed around the role of CBS in the path to universal access to sanitation. Read the entire transcript of Sasha’s presentation on the CBSA’s latest blog post.