Case Study: One Stop Shop in Kasese, Uganda

Innovative business solution for improved urban sanitation

Support to sanitation and hygiene promotion is amongst the most cost effective development interventions that can contribute to improved health, living conditions, and quality of life. However, in many poor countries around the world, the major cities’ informal settlements exhibit high rates of disease due to inadequate and unsanitary conditions. Metropolitan sanitation is more complex due to higher population densities, inconsistent communal structures, and lack of opportunities for accessing sustainable sanitary solutions. Plans to improve access to sanitation in towns and cities are hampered by multiple challenges, such as setting of standards around acceptable sanitation, regulations, infrastructures, skills, land issues but also the lack of interest from authorities to provide sustainable solutions to the settlements. 

In 2010 Danish Red Cross (DRC) arranged the international “Safe Water Summit” in cooperation with Danida, Grundfos A/S and Bindslev A/S, which aimed to develop innovative business solutions to water and sanitation challenges in East Africa. One of the solutions proposed was a One Stop Shop (OSS) – a sanitary facility with toilets and showers for people living in informal settlements. DRC engaged in a partnership with Uganda Red Cross (URCS), Danish private sector businesses, Danish universities and Access2innovation (A2I) to create and test this new and sustainable solution and business model addressing sanitation in urban areas.