Construction of a new household sewer connection in Kanyama. Photo: World Bank
Between 2015 and 2024, the Lusaka Sanitation Project benefited more than 345,000 people of which 50 percent were women:
The project provided over 2,200 new household sewer connections, and 117 kilometers of sewer were rehabilitated and newly constructed under the project.
“The goodness of these toilets is that they are different from the traditionally dug toilets without lids. These newly built toilets are easy to clean and maintain their cleanliness.” - Ms. Dorcas, one of the beneficiaries of the onsite sanitation facilities constructed in Kanyama.
"I have never experienced any blockages with the sewage system since switching from a septic tank to the sewer network. If there had been any issues, I would have already visited your offices. I am pleased to report that I have had no complaints since making the change.” - Beneficiary from the expanded sewerage improvements.
Zambia has struggled to provide adequate water supply and sanitation, crucial for its economic growth and social well-being. At the onset of the Lusaka Sanitation Project in 2015, only 63 percent of the population had access to clean drinking water, and 43 percent had adequate sanitation. These figures underscore the distance to reach Zambia’s national goal of 100 percent clean water and 90 percent adequate sanitation by 2030. Poor sanitation infrastructure has harmed public health, increasing child malnutrition, illness, and premature deaths, and causing a 1.3 percent GDP loss. Lusaka, the capital, has struggled with frequent outbreaks of cholera, typhoid, and dysentery due to poor sanitation in high-density areas. In response, Zambia launched reforms to improve water and sanitation services, focusing on management, decentralization, cost recovery, and development.
The Lusaka Sanitation Project was aligned with the Zambia Country Partnership Framework FY19–FY23, which was extended to FY24, particularly in two areas: increasing resilient infrastructure services (Objective 1.3) and improving access to secondary education, health services, nutrition, and social protection for girls and women in selected rural areas (Objective 2.1). The project provided infrastructure investments targeting the entire sanitation chain by including both sewered and non-sewered systems in urban and peri-urban areas. The project also strengthened the Lusaka Water and Sanitation Company's (LWSC) capacity to manage all aspects of sanitation, including fecal sludge management (FSM), which is the process of collecting, transporting, treating, and safe disposal or reuse of fecal sludge that accumulates in non-sewered sanitation facilities. This approach ensured that the diverse needs of various communities were met, including those in poor, low-income areas. The project also enhanced LWSC's institutional framework to sustainably provide sanitation services after the project was completed and innovating marketing campaigns to generate customer demand and address affordability and willingness-to-pay issues (e.g., partnership with NGOs / small private entity to provide microfinance loans to households for toilet construction). Innovative solutions such as developing performance-based contracts for private service providers and the development of a mobile application for reporting sewer blockages and a Management Information System for the sanitation system have been critical in monitoring and evaluation and improving FSM. A comprehensive post project operation and maintenance plan was also prepared to ensure LWSC continued to have the capacity to sustainably manage the newly established assets. The goal was to guarantee that the new assets continue to function effectively and efficiently over the long term, providing ongoing benefits and value.
The Citywide Inclusive Sanitation (CWIS) approach, which encompasses targeted sanitation marketing and enhanced customer services, was also included in the Lusaka Sanitation Project to ensure that everyone has access to safely managed sanitation by targeting peri-urban areas where poor populations had no access to improved sanitation services. This comprehensive approach encourages promoting a range of solutions, both onsite and sewered, centralized or decentralized tailored to the realities of the world's burgeoning cities.
The success of the Lusaka Sanitation Project can also be attributed to analytical work, such as the Zambia Water Supply and Sanitation Sector Diagnostic and a cholera risk analysis using geospatial data. These analytics identified the economic impacts of poor sanitation and key inefficiencies in the sector, particularly in commercial utilities, and provided recommendations to improve the effectiveness of Water Supply and Sanitation programs and reduce cholera risk. Furthermore, with the Global Water Security and Sanitation Partnership financing, the World Bank provided technical assistance to the LWSC IT department to upgrade its mobile payment system, improving billing and incentivizing sewer service connections.
The Lusaka Sanitation Project has contributed to Zambia's high-level development objectives, particularly those outlined in the Country Partnership Framework. The project has improved sanitation services in urban and peri-urban areas, directly benefiting a segment of Lusaka’s poorest and vulnerable population and enhancing public health outcomes.
Between 2015 and 2024, the project achieved the following results:
Moreover, the LWSC has significantly improved its capacity to manage sanitation services, increasing the percentage of sewer blockage complaints addressed within 48 hours from a baseline of 28 percent to 100 percent. The project has strengthened the institutional capacity of LWSC, by establishing a fully operational Management Information System for the sanitation system, which included modules such as Onsite Sanitation, Fecal Sludge Management, and Monitoring & Evaluation. This facilitated improved management of sanitation services and fecal sludge.
The project has fostered strong partnerships with local authorities, communities, and international organizations, ensuring a collaborative approach to improving sanitation services in Lusaka.
The project received financing of $65 million from the International Development Association (IDA) and an additional $3.5 million in counterpart funding from the government of Zambia. Additionally, the Global Water Security and Sanitation Partnership contributed $390,000 for technical assistance, which informed the design of the project and supported capacity building.
The Lusaka Sanitation Project was a collaboration between government agencies, multiple International Financial Institutions including the World Bank, the European Investment Bank, Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and the African Development Bank, as well as non-profit organizations like WaterAid, People's Process on Housing and Poverty in Zambia, private sanitation operators and local communities. This collaboration supported the project to address various aspects of the sanitation crisis.
Continuous engagement with the government, LWSC, and International Financial Institution partners is crucial for the long-term functionality and sustainability of the sanitation investments. The Citywide Inclusive Sanitation approach adopted in the project, which encompasses targeted sanitation marketing and enhanced customer services, has been recognized as a replicable model for other countries such as Malawi, Mozambique, and Tanzania that face similar challenges such as low access to improved sanitation services. A new World Bank Program-for-Results Project is being developed to tackle efficiency challenges faced by commercial utilities, with the objective of enhancing the delivery of sanitation and water services.
