Achieving the Human Right to Sanitation? Container based sanitation and intersectional vulnerabilities in a South African informal settlement
- 1Politics and Urban Governance Research Group, Department of Political Studies, University of the Western Cape, Cape Town, South Africa
- 2Cranfield Water Science Institute, Faculty of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Cranfield University, Bedford, United Kingdom
- 3School of Population and Global Health, The University of Western Australia, Nedlands, Australia
Abstract
Container based sanitation (CBS) is marketed as an innovative ‘improved’ service with potential to provide ‘safely managed’ sanitation for people living in low resource settings. Yet little research has investigated this claim regarding the most marginalised individuals within these populations, many of whom experience myriad intersectional vulnerabilities. This paper examines and compares whether household CBS (in the form of portable flush toilets, PFTs) and shared sanitation users in a South African informal settlement are able to realise their Human Right to Sanitation (HRtS). Thirteen residents of BM Section, Cape Town, were purposively selected to understand how sanitation service types, age, gender, (dis)ability, income and personal shocks shape experiences. Data was collected using Photovoice and analysed using Winkler’s interpretation of the normative contents of the HRtS and Crenshaw’s theory of intersectionality. In this context, the adoption of household CBS and its ability to function as a private, dignified, safe (hygienic and physical) form of sanitation depends on users’ capacity to adapt it to overcome the technology’s limitations. Users with limited or no capacity to adapt their PFTs face limitations in accessing sanitation safely, privately and with dignity. This in turn, worsens disparities in sanitation outcomes among vulnerable PFT users, underscoring that technical provision alone is insufficient to realise the HRtS. Shared sanitation remains functionally limited or unsafe for many. When the HRtS and intersectionality are considered, household CBS may have the potential to be ‘safely managed’ in theory, but in reality, barely meets the needs of the most vulnerable users.
Related
- Willingness-to-pay for container-based sanitation and implications for targeted subsidy design in urban Haiti
- Why fix water and sanitation service providers?
- Sanitation barriers, lack of awareness and unaffordability affecting menstrual health management among urban low-income group, informal sector women workers: A study from Mumbai suburbs
- Flooding-driven sanitation failure and enteric disease risk in urban informal settlements: Cholera as an illustrative case for climate-resilient sanitation in low- and middle-income countries
- Intersectional Barriers to and Facilitators of Educational Inclusion for Persons With Disabilities in Low‐ and Middle‐Income Countries: A Systematic Literature Review
BibTeX
@article{dube2026achieving,
title = {{Achieving the Human Right to Sanitation? Container based sanitation and intersectional vulnerabilities in a South African informal settlement}},
author = {Mmeli Dube and Fiona Anciano and Alesia D. Ofori and Lindokuhle Mabaso and Dani J. Barrington},
journal = {PLOS Water},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.1371/journal.pwat.0000524},
url = {https://journals.plos.org/water/article?id=10.1371/journal.pwat.0000524},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Achieving the Human Right to Sanitation? Container based sanitation and intersectional vulnerabilities in a South African informal settlement
AU - Mmeli Dube
AU - Fiona Anciano
AU - Alesia D. Ofori
AU - Lindokuhle Mabaso
AU - Dani J. Barrington
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/05
JO - PLOS Water
DO - 10.1371/journal.pwat.0000524
UR - https://journals.plos.org/water/article?id=10.1371/journal.pwat.0000524
AB - Container based sanitation (CBS) is marketed as an innovative ‘improved’ service with potential to provide ‘safely managed’ sanitation for people living in low resource settings. Yet little research has investigated this claim regarding the most marginalised individuals within these populations, many of whom experience myriad intersectional vulnerabilities. This paper examines and compares whether household CBS (in the form of portable flush toilets, PFTs) and shared sanitation users in a South African informal settlement are able to realise their Human Right to Sanitation (HRtS). Thirteen residents of BM Section, Cape Town, were purposively selected to understand how sanitation service types, age, gender, (dis)ability, income and personal shocks shape experiences. Data was collected using Photovoice and analysed using Winkler’s interpretation of the normative contents of the HRtS and Crenshaw’s theory of intersectionality. In this context, the adoption of household CBS and its ability to function as a private, dignified, safe (hygienic and physical) form of sanitation depends on users’ capacity to adapt it to overcome the technology’s limitations. Users with limited or no capacity to adapt their PFTs face limitations in accessing sanitation safely, privately and with dignity. This in turn, worsens disparities in sanitation outcomes among vulnerable PFT users, underscoring that technical provision alone is insufficient to realise the HRtS. Shared sanitation remains functionally limited or unsafe for many. When the HRtS and intersectionality are considered, household CBS may have the potential to be ‘safely managed’ in theory, but in reality, barely meets the needs of the most vulnerable users.
SN - 2767-3219
ER -