I remember walking into the offices of Dhaka Water Supply and Sewerage Authority (DWASA) along with my colleagues at Water & Sanitation for the Urban Poor (WSUP) nearly eight years ago to discuss a new business idea. By then, WSUP had already been working with DWASA and the City Corporation to improve water, sanitation, and hygiene in some of the poorest communities in the city. It was time to take this a step further.
As you see, the vast majority of urban residents in Bangladesh rely on sanitation which is not connected to a sewer. In fact, only 20 percent of Dhaka’s population, mainly in high-income areas, is connected. Instead, residents rely on pit latrines or septic tanks, which need to be emptied and the waste taken to a treatment plant.
However, a safe, affordable service is not available for most residents. They resort to manual pit-emptiers, or ‘sweepers’, to collect the waste which is then usually dumped in open drains or rivers, posing a great threat to people’s health and the surrounding environment.
The lack of clarity around whose responsibility it was to provide sanitation waste collection services in the city greatly hindered progress in this area. And high up-front capital costs prevented private sector engagement in this market.
So, our idea was SWEEP, a service that would bring together a range of stakeholders who could complement each other in delivering a new sanitation waste collection service.
After three years of negotiations, we finally launched, and DWASA signed a lease agreement with one SME. The contract allowed the entrepreneur to lease two vacuum tankers, which DWASA owned but didn’t use. This lowered the barriers to entry, enabling the entrepreneur to provide an emptying service at a minimal start-up cost.
Whilst we tested SWEEP, WSUP was also one of several organisations which helped draft the Faecal Sludge Management (FSM) Institutional Regulatory Framework in Bangladesh. The framework passed into law in May 2017, a crucial step in assigning responsibilities to different public sector institutions. It has been instrumental in driving interest from the public sector in the SWEEP model.
The next milestone for WSUP was the Skoll Foundation’s decision to invest in the SWEEP scale-up, building on piloting work which had been supported by funders including the UK government, the Stone Family Foundation, and Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Fast forward to 2022, and the model is now operational in the cities of Dhaka, Chattogram, and Rangpur as well as five other municipalities. Some 13 enterprises are part of SWEEP, serving more than 2.6 million residents. It is the country’s first financially viable sanitation waste collection service which reaches the poorest households. We aim to reach 15 million by 2030.
What was a neglected business sector, is now an opportunity for many enterprises looking to enter the sanitation market. With lower start-up costs, greater flexibility and a faster return on investment, the model has proven that it can be profitable. Key to its success is recognising the value of middle and high-income customers in establishing and sustaining commercial viability.
What sets the SWEEP model apart is that entrepreneurs are required to ensure that at least 30 percent of their customers are from low-income communities. Entrepreneurs use a variable pricing structure to ensure that poorer residents pay less than higher income and commercial customers, giving them access to a safe service which they did not previously have.
As a public-private partnership, an engaged city authority is key to its success. Although city authorities have the responsibility to deliver these services, they are often unable to re-organise their work force to deliver the services themselves. Through SWEEP, they can now serve customers in a scalable manner across the city while remaining flexible and maintaining ownership of their assets.
The regular emptying of septic tanks via SWEEP which helps prevent septic tanks from flooding and contaminating the environment is also crucial given that Bangladesh is one of the most vulnerable countries to climate change. Our research has identified that climate change is increasing the amount of human sewage polluting the environment and communities in densely populated urban areas.
Through innovations like SWEEP, sanitation waste collection services can be a low-cost way to help the poorest urban residents adapt to climate change. To date, SWEEP has stopped around 30 million litres of human waste polluting the environment. Given that only a fraction of the population in Bangladesh benefit from sewered services, there remains much work to solve the problem in its entirety.
The success of SWEEP builds momentum around sanitation in Bangladesh. The government now invests in sanitation services such as new vacuum tankers and treatment plants across various locations in Bangladesh. There is a real opportunity to take SWEEP to scale and ensure that the benefits of this investment reach the poorest.
If we are to have a chance of building equitable cities, then ensuring safely managed sanitation waste is a fundamental requirement. The private sector can play a vital role in this effort and SWEEP is a prime example. Leaving waste in communities affects people’s health and pollutes the environment; and as climate change gathers pace, this challenge will only get worse. SWEEP offers a solution, and we urge policymakers, investors, and the private sector to embrace this opportunity.
Banner image: Marketing SWEEP to residents in Rangpur (WSUP / Green Ink Media)
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