When severe flooding displaced over 154,608 people across Zambia in February 2023, the Zambia Red Cross Society (ZRCS) demonstrated that meaningful community engagement is achievable even in acute emergencies. This case study challenges the common perception that emergency contexts preclude participatory approaches to sanitation.
This case study examines how safe and dignified sanitation was achieved through careful consideration of accessibility, privacy, and cultural appropriateness in facility design and placement.
Through simple, low-cost methods of gathering and acting on community feedback, ZRCS rapidly adapted sanitation facilities to meet the needs of 19,314 people (11,588 females and 7,726 males), 12% of those displaced camps, proving that there are no valid excuses for not ensuring dignified sanitation.
Read the case study or watch the video of the presentation at the Emergency Environmental Health Forum (EEHF) 2025
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English