Container-based sanitation (CBS) has rapidly progressed from its inception less than a decade ago to its recent classification by the Joint Monitoring Programme as a type of improved sanitation facility.
CBS in many ways represents a sustainable service: it addresses the entire sanitation service chain; it offers a variety of service-based business models; and it is affordable to people living in marginalised and informal urban settlements. At the same time, CBS services which have been operating for a number of years have grown relatively slowly. Taking CBS to scale will require solving several diverse challenges, particularly the need for government mandates, regulation and innovative financing.
This paper presents the collective views of some of the world’s leading CBS practitioners in an effort to summarise the potential, research gaps, and major challenges to scaling CBS.
