World Toilet Day: Searching for a safe place to go part of daily life for many
Across the world, millions of city residents lack access to adequate toilets. In rapidly growing cities, the lack of safe sanitation systems not only contributes to the spread of infectious diseases but also lowers the overall quality of life, especially for marginalized communities. A documentary by IHE Delft alumna Cecilia Alda-Vidal shows what it means to live with unreliable sanitation infrastructure.
Her film, May I use your toilet follows a Malawian street vendor Caroline, who lives in a low-income neighbourhood in Lilongwe, for a day. Caroline shares a pit latrine with her neighbours, but she has no access to sanitation facilities when she travels to the city to work. There, she relies on the kindness of others to allow her to use their toilet.
“Even with toilets at home, they face so many challenges — latrines that are full or collapsing, or water shortages that make flush toilets unusable."
Alda Vidal, who graduated from IHE Delft in 2014 with an MSc in Water Management, said the people she interviewed in Lilongwe for her research and documentary changed how she thinks about sanitation. “Even with toilets at home, they face so many challenges — latrines that are full or collapsing, or water shortages that make flush toilets unusable," she said.
In the film, based on Alda-Vidal’s research published earlier this year in Sage journal, a wastewater treatment plant official explains that latrines are no longer built in new developments. Where sewer pipes are available, flush toilets are installed, with septic tanks used elsewhere. But both these water-based solutions are based on the experiences and practices of cities in the Global North and widen the infrastructure gap for low-income neighbourhoods, where they remain a luxury for the majority.
In the paper, Alda-Vidal and co-authors cite research on such conventional water-based solutions, noting they have been shown to be unsuitable in many areas where water is scarce or becoming scarce due to climate change.
Alda-Vidal’s research also shows that the burden of fixing and maintaining toilets falls disproportionately on women – this is something she and co-authors discuss in a 2023 paper published in the Geoforum journal. The impacts of malfunctioning toilets also mainly affect women, as they take responsibility for providing clean water and caring for sick members of the family.
"For me, it’s a reminder not to assume that sanitation systems will always work. We need flexible, even overlapping solutions—not just at home, but throughout cities, at work, and especially for marginalized populations who are often the most affected when systems break down."
Across Sub-Saharan Africa, only 11% of urban residents have access to a toilet connected to sewer pipes. Local alternative practices, for example the use of rainwater or greywater to flush toilets, and the use of more than one sanitation solution, would be better, Alda-Vidal argued.
"For me, it’s a reminder not to assume that sanitation systems will always work. We need flexible, even overlapping solutions—not just at home, but throughout cities, at work, and especially for marginalized populations who are often the most affected when systems break down," she said.
After graduating from IHE Delft, Alda-Vidal, who is from Spain, did a PhD in Human Geography at the University of Manchester. She is now a Postdoctoral Researcher and Urban Geographer focussing on urban adaptation at IMAGINE Adaptation —BC3 - Basque Centre for Climate Change.
“Studying at IHE Delft reaffirmed the importance of social science perspectives in water and sanitation and encouraged me to think critically and keep asking meaningful questions.”
“Studying at IHE Delft reaffirmed the importance of social science perspectives in water and sanitation and encouraged me to think critically and keep asking meaningful questions,” said Alda-Vidal. “There, I had incredible mentors who inspired me to pursue a PhD and encouraged me to build an academic career committed to addressing complex challenges in the field."
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