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The ventilated improved pit (VIP) latrine is a cheaper and convenient alternative to water-borne sanitation for many households in developing countries. To mimic the water closet toilet, some users have introduced prefabricated ceramic seats with covers, which are known to disrupt the odour control mechanism of the latrine. The objective of this study was to quantitatively establish the extent to which the use of seats with covers affects the ventilation rate in the VIP latrine and to explore whether an innovative seat with a partially-screened cover could significantly minimise the effect of seat covering. The ventilation rates in experimental latrines with various modifications of superstructure and user interface designs were monitored with an air flow meter. The study revealed that seat covering could lead to >87% reduction in the ventilation rate and allow the generation of <50% of the minimum ventilation rate required to achieve odour-free conditions in an otherwise standard VIP latrine. The study also established that lining part of the seat cover with an insect screen could increase the ventilation rate by more than three times and could attain the minimum ventilation rate when combined with the conventionally recommended superstructure design.

The provision of sustainable sanitation service to all South Africans has become one of the government national priorities. This is because the government recognizes that all citizens of the country has the right to basic sanitation that is affordable, appropriate, socially acceptable and sustainable in the long run. Ventilated Improved Pit latrines (VIP) has been considered to be the minimum acceptable level of sanitation service. However, the provision of appropriate sanitation service in the form of VIP latrines to all goes beyond building the toilets, plans should be put in place by municipalities are for adequate operation and maintenance of the toilets before and when the toilets reaches their capacity. Major challenges faced by many of this municipalities which is also common in many developing countries is that, this on-site sanitation systems eventually becomes full to their capacity and if there is no long-term maintenance plan in place, this system becomes unusable and eventually leaves the household without an effective basic sanitation system again. This paper present innovative approaches that have been considered for the operation and maintenance of Ventilated Improved Pit latrine in and around eThekwini Municipality in Durban, South Africa.

This study investigated the chemical and thermal properties of faecal sludge from 10 dry VIP latrines in Bester's Camp in the eThekwini Municipality, Durban, South Africa. Faecal sludge samples were selected at different depths and from the front and back sections of 10 VIP latrines during a manual emptying process. The samples were analysed for: moisture content; volatile solids; chemical oxygen demand; ammonia; total Kjeldahl nitrogen; pH; orthophosphate; thermal conductivity; calorific value and heat capacity. These properties will facilitate the design of faecal sludge emptying and treatment equipment. A manual sorting of the pit contents was carried out to determine the categories and amounts of household waste present. There was a significant difference in the moisture, volatile solids, chemical oxygen demand, ammonia, total Kjeldahl nitrogen and orthophosphate content of the faecal sludge between the front and back sections of the pit. There was minimal change in the thermal properties within the pit. The median values through the pit of each property analysed were: moisture content - 0.81 g water/g wet mass; volatile solids - 1.5 g VS/g ash; COD - 1.7 g COD/g ash; ammonia nitrogen - 10 mg NH3-N/g dry mass; TKN - 39 mg N/g dry mass; pH - 8.03; orthophosphate - 0.06 mg PO4/g dry mass; thermal conductivity - 0.55 W/m K; calorific value - 14 kJ/g dry mass; heat capacity - 2.4x10 3 kJ/kg K. On average, 87% of pit content is faecal sludge; the remainder consists of wastes such as paper, plastics and textiles.

Nowadays, in Benin, latrine construction by households highly depends on their financial contributions. However, empirical evidence shows that many households are unwilling to invest in adequate sanitation services. The study aims to determine the household’s willingness to pay for improved sanitation services and the associated factors. The study population will include households lacking unimproved sanitation facilities. The household heads will be eligible for survey participation. We will perform a contingent valuation to determine households’ willingness to pay for a Ventilated Improved Pit (VIP) latrine. Following a description of the surveyed population, we will assess willingness to pay using the ‘doubleb’ command in Stata. Subsequently, we will conduct multivariate logistic regression to determine the factors associated with willingness to pay. The expected results will be: a description of the basic characteristics of households without improved sanitation services, an estimation of household willingness to pay for VIP latrines using the contingent valuation, and factors associated with household willingness to pay for VIP latrines. This study will contribute to the literature on household demand for improved sanitation services in Benin.

The Africa Infrastructure Country Diagnostic (AICD) has produced continent-wide analysis of many aspects of Africa's infrastructure challenge. The main findings were synthesized in a flagship report titled Africa's Infrastructure: a time for transformation, published in November 2009. Meant for policy makers, that report necessarily focused on the high-level conclusions. It attracted widespread media coverage feeding directly into discussions at the 2009 African Union Commission Heads of State Summit on Infrastructure. Although the flagship report served a valuable role in highlighting the main findings of the project, it could not do full justice to the richness of the data collected and technical analysis undertaken. There was clearly a need to make this more detailed material available to a wider audience of infrastructure practitioners. Hence the idea of producing four technical monographs, such as this one, to provide detailed results on each of the major infrastructure sectors, information and communication technologies (ICT), power, transport, and water, as companions to the flagship report. These technical volumes are intended as reference books on each of the infrastructure sectors. They cover all aspects of the AICD project relevant to each sector, including sector performance, gaps in financing and efficiency, and estimates of the need for additional spending on investment, operations, and maintenance. Each volume also comes with a detailed data appendix, providing easy access to all the relevant infrastructure indicators at the country level, which is a resource in and of itself.

The ventilated improved pit (VIP) latrine has the potential to address the challenge of access to improved sanitation in built-up low-income settings. However, its conventional technical design fails to address the needs and preferences of some users. The objective of this paper was to test the technical performance of modified engineering designs of the technology to respond to some preferences of toilet users. The entry of air from multiple windows in the superstructure and installation of insect screens in windows were tested in an experimental VIP latrine. The modified design achieved the recommended ventilation rate of 20 m3/h when a vent pipe diameter of 150 mm was used. The study concludes that adopting a multidirectional airflow design leads to a lower ventilation rate as compared to the conventional design. However, when fitted with the recommended size of vent pipe, this modified design achieves more than twice the recommended ventilation rate with or without an insect screen installed in the windows. Nevertheless, the practice in which 100 mm diameter vent pipes are used with insect screens installed in windows is likely to lead to odour problems due to inadequate ventilation through the vent pipe.

This study was conducted to identify the gaps that exist between ventilated improved pit (VIP) latrine construction practices in Cape Coast, Ghana, and conventional technical guidelines, and to assess how any non-compliance with technical guidelines influences the users' perception of odour and fly nuisances. An inspection guide was used to assess 127 VIP latrines, while a questionnaire survey was used to obtain feedback from 211 users of the latrines on their perception of odour and fly nuisance. Not a single latrine was found to be fitted with a vent pipe that satisfied the recommended diameter of 150 mm. Aside from the vent pipe diameter, only 5.5% of latrines complied with all four other design guidelines that were assessed. However, with the exception of failure to install insect screens on vent pipes, which was associated with the users seeing flies in the latrine cubicles, failure to comply with other guidelines did not necessarily lead to significantly higher user perception of the targeted nuisance. The findings of the study suggest that user perception of odour in their latrines may be more influenced by non-structural factors such as the management or cleanliness of the latrines rather than their structural designs.

Sludge content in VIP latrines is degraded mainly under anaerobic conditions and the process is relatively slow. At varying stages of digestion within pit latrines, sludge accumulates and odour and fly nuisance may occur which could pose risks to public health and the environment. Management of accumulated sludge in pit latrines has been a major problem facing a number of municipalities in South Africa and is also a global issue. Manufacturers of various commercial pit latrine additives claim that by addition of this product to pit content, accumulation rate and pit content volume can be reduced, thereby preventing the pit from ever reaching capacity. This paper presents a comprehensive study conducted to determine the effects of additives on pit contents under laboratory and field conditions. By conducting both laboratory and field trials, it was possible to identify whether there is any acceleration of mass or volume stabilisation as a result of additive addition, and whether any apparent effect is a result of biodegradation or of compaction. The results indicated that neither laboratory trials nor field trials provided any evidence that the use of pit additives has any beneficial effect on pit contents. The reasons why additives seem to not have any beneficial effects are also discussed.

The rate of ventilation through the vent pipe of a ventilated improved pit latrine is the main technical factor that determines its efficiency in odour control aside the maintenance and cleaning practices of the users. Even though the factors affecting the ventilation rate have been well researched, they have not been previously related in a mathematical model to quantify the relative effect of the various factors on the ventilation rate. The objective of this paper is to develop such a model that could be used to optimise and predict the ventilation rate as a function of relevant design criteria and weather conditions. The ventilation rates produced by various design modifications in an experimental ventilated improved pit latrine were measured under monitored weather conditions. A linear regression model was used to assess the relative effect of the various design modifications and the elements of weather on the ventilation rate. It was found that the diameter of the vent pipe is the most important factor which accounts for 53% of variations in the ventilation rate, followed by the external wind speed, which accounts for 25% of changes in ventilation. The provision of windows in other sides of the superstructure other than the windward side leads to a reduction of 32% in the ventilation rate and accounts for 9% of the variations in the ventilation rate. A regression model developed in this study could be used to optimise and predict the ventilation rate based on a set of design criteria and meteorological data.

In 2015, African ministers established the Ngor Declaration to achieve universal access to adequate sanitation and hygiene services and eliminate open defecation by 2030. Realizing this target will require significant public and private investment. Over the last two decades, there has been increasing recognition that sanitation programs should be demand driven, yet limited information exists about how much rural residents in developing countries are willing to pay for sanitation improvements. This paper applies the contingent valuation approach to evaluate how much households in rural Senegal are willing to pay for a ventilated improved pit (VIP) latrine. The analysis uses data from 1,635 household surveys that were conducted in 47 rural communities across four regions in Senegal. The willingness to pay model found that respondents were more willing to pay for a VIP latrine if they had plans to improve their existing latrine, lived in districts located nearer to the capital city of Dakar, were dissatisfied with their existing sanitation service, and were male. The analysis also indicates that the current household contribution of 5% of the costs of constructing a VIP latrine could be increased to 30% with only a modest decline in the number of households willing to pay this amount.