Africa Water, Sanitation & Hygiene Africa Water, Sanitation Jan -Feb 2014 Vol.10 No1 | Page 22

SUWASA News

An Emerging Fecal Sludge Management System
in a Post-Conflict Situation: The Case of Juba
By Barbara Kazimbaya Senkwe (PhD)

Introduction
Three years after independence South Sudan is building its municipal services, especially urban sanitation. However
coverage remains low, even by African standards, at 19% in 2009 (WSP, 2010). In the capital Juba, sanitation and other
services lag behind the city’s rapid growth. Piped sewerage is available to just about 2% of Juba’s population and is
mostly provided to ministers’ homes and government offices. The majority of Juba residents use pit latrines and pourflush toilets which are emptied by mechanized exhausters that dispose the fecal waste at the Roton wastewater lagoon.
Juba therefore has an emerging Fecal Sludge Management (FSM) system comprising the three key components of
Containment, Collection and Transportation, and treatment and disposal of fecal waste. With development of citywide
sewer network not anticipated for a while yet, this FSM system is crucial in the safe handling and disposal of fecal matter.
This paper therefore looks at how Juba’s fecal sludge management system is organized, identifying key challenges and
opportunities. It particularly focuses on highlighting characteristics of each of the three components of the FSM chain
and providing suggestions on how the municipality and its partners can further strengthen this system.
The paper is based on primary research by SUWASA, between September 2013 and July 20142. The lessons learned
from this study are applicable in other post-conflict countries.

Juba
Juba City’s population is estimated to have grown from 163,000 in
2005 to 500,000 in 2013, with an average household size of 9.36 (NBS
2012:13). Geographically, Juba’s footprint has more than tripled in size
from 2002 to 2012.
The population is distributed across three payams of Juba, Kator and
Munuki in five settlement types: established formal areas, transitional
formal areas, new formal areas, recent informal areas, and enclosed
open or official spaces designated for uses including United Nations
compounds and government ministries. New informal areas make up the
largest of the settlement types (Map 1).
A Growing Market for Fecal Sludge Management
According to a 2013 baseline survey by SUWASA at least 55% of
Map 1: Typology of Settlements in Juba
households have access to personal toilets, mostly pit latrines or pourSource-SUWASA Sanitation Mapping 2013
flush toilets that require emptying and fecal sludge management.
Continued use of onsite sanitation facilities is expected as the piped
water supply network serves only 20% of the city’s growing population. It is estimated that Juba generates more than 45
million liters of fecal sludge annually according to a baseline survey of fecal sludge generation in Africa by Chowdhry
and Kone (2012) (Table 1).
1. SUWASA is a regional program funded by the United State Agency for Interna [ۘ[]