Poor sanitation comes with a cost – it affects the affected individuals’ and populations’ health status and their productivity. Zambia, for example, loses 1.3 percent of GDP due to public health impacts of poor sanitation which results in child malnutrition, illness and premature death.
Lack of access to basic sanitation services can lead to disease outbreaks especially among the poorest who depend on onsite sanitation and faecal sludge management. As Zambia works towards better access to sanitation for all it is important to recognise the important work done by front-line sanitation workers and to tackle the stigmatisation related to faecal matter and their work. This film throws light on the ways in which they help make Lusaka a healthy and liveable city.
There is also a German version of the film.
The film was produced by Bremen Overseas Research and Development Association (BORDA) with support from the Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and Deutsche Gesselschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) in cooperation with Sustainable sanitation Alliance (SuSanA) and Faecal Sludge Management alliance (FSMA). The film was shot in November 2019 before the COVID-19 pandemic.
Thanks are due to the National Water Supply and Sanitation Council (NWASCO), Lusaka Water and Sanitation Company (LWSC), Chazanga Water Trust, Lusaka City Council (LCC) and Chambeshi Water Supply and Sanitation Company for their interviews and permission to be filmed. Gratitude is expressed to BORDA Zambia, GIZ GFS Programme Luska and WSUP Zambia for organizing the interviews and the training programme.
This photo story tackles the same topic with striking pictures of an aspect of city life that rarely talked about or documented: https://www.susana.org/en/knowledge-hub/resources-and-publications/library/details/3762