To discuss the critical situation of water and sanitation provision and to present innovative alternative solutions, the Faculty of Management Sciences at the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru (PUCP) organized the multisectoral panel "The Water and Sanitation Crisis in Human Settlements of Lima, Peru" on April 25.
The panel included Max Carbajal, General Director of the Directorate of Policies and Regulation in Construction and Sanitation; Hellen López, researcher and professor from the Department of Management Sciences; and Arturo Llaxacondor, General Manager of Sanima. The event was moderated by Edgardo Cruzado, a PUCP professor and former public official.
In the first part of the panel, the results of the research project "Scaling Off-Grid Solutions" were presented. This project aimed to understand the challenges and demands regarding access to water and sanitation among users and non-users of Container-Based Sanitation (CBS) in three cities: Lima (Peru), Cape Town (South Africa), and Nairobi (Kenya). Regarding the project results in Peru, Hellen López highlighted the following:
“The main findings indicate that having a solution like Sanima's is generating greater well-being for people. They feel there is more privacy, less disgust, and more cleanliness. These categories are essential to define a dignified and healthy bathroom universally. (...) Sanima users value the service because they have a satisfaction level higher than 98%, which is not commonly found in other types of services, and they recommend it.” Watch video
Following this, Arturo Llaxacondor presented Sanima's experience in providing CBS services for 12 years, now reaching more than 220 human settlements in Lima, Peru. Notably, in 2018, this technology was recognized by the United Nations as safely managed sanitation that can effectively close the sanitation provision gap worldwide.
Llaxacondor emphasized that, given the country's sanitation crisis, the State needs to adopt complementary solutions like CBS that are quickly implementable, proven to be safe, accepted by users, and cost-efficient. Currently, households using Sanima statistically register higher well-being scores than non-users.
Finally, Max Carbajal shared the scope of Bill 5636-2023/PE, which establishes measures to ensure universal access to drinking water and emphasizes the adoption of unconventional technologies for this purpose. Regarding the sanitation provision issue, Carbajal noted the plan to integrate unconventional technologies to guarantee universal access to this essential service for people's well-being.
Regarding Sanima's experience implementing CBS, Carbajal stated:
“Sanima represents a highly significant unconventional technology experience with enormous potential to scale to other localities both in Lima and nationwide. We believe they will be an essential partner in the Ministry of Housing's policy to ensure that no Peruvian is without access to water and sanitation nationwide.“ Watch video
Thus, this crucial multisectoral panel concluded by building bridges among the panelists, who, from different roles, share the purpose of ensuring that all people in Peru can exercise their rights to water and sanitation.
