News Archives - Fresh Life

Bridging the financial gap in Kenya’s urban sanitation sector through Results-Based Financing

Griffins Toroitich — Wed, 25 Sep 2024 13:09:31 +0000

Nairobi, Kenya – July 26, 2024 – In a move to improve sanitation access in urban informal settlements, Fresh Life has launched a new Results-Based Financing (RBF) mechanism for urban non-sewered sanitation. This innovative approach aims to enhance the delivery of sanitation services in Nairobi, where over 60% of the population reside in informal settlements that are largely underserved with sewer systems.

The Water and Sanitation Sector in Kenya has long faced fundamental challenges, including inadequate infrastructure, limited financing, and strained and insufficient maintenance of existing facilities. Financing remains atop of the list, with the National Water and Sanitation Investment Plan (NAWASIP 2023-2030) indicating that the sector requires Kshs.1 trillion to achieve universal coverage and attain SDG 6 by the year 2030. The sector is however facing a Kshs.652 billion f inancing gap, with the deficit for provision of safe sanitation in urban areas estimated at Kshs. 365 billion.

To fund this gap, it is necessary to leverage public private partnerships and blended financing mechanisms to attract private and commercial investments. The introduction of Results-Based Financing (RBF) for urban non-sewered sanitation by Fresh Life marks a significant step towards bridging this gap. RBF is an innovative approach to financing that links financial support directly to the achievement of measurable results.It is a mechanism that will boost investors’ confidence on project funding and delivery and incentivize service providers to deliver tangible, impactful results.

Fresh Life is a leading provider of urban non-sewered sanitation in fast growing cities. Over the years, they have established one of the largest networks of container-based sanitation in Nairobi, Kisumu, Eldoret, Kenya and Lusaka Zambia, serving over 260,000 people with daily access to safely managed sanitation services. The WASREB Impact Report Issue No. 16, estimates safe sanitation coverage in Kenya at only 29%. With 7 years remaining until the conclusion of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development Goals, Kenya has its work cut out to alter the current trajectory and attain universal coverage by achieving the targeted 40% sewer and 60% non-sewered coverage by 2030.

Fresh Life has a proven track record of delivering over 7,500 container-based toilets and waste management services as a not-for-profit enterprise reliant on grant funding. RBF will set theprecedent for future paid service contracts between the government and Fresh Life for further scale and sustainability. The predefined results for Fresh Life’s RBF model will include- the number of container-based toilets added to the Nairobi network, the total number of operational toilets and the number of barrels of pit latrine waste received at Fresh Life’s Mtaa Fresh stations. These 3 metrics cover the work of Fresh Life in Nairobi to ensure service is provided and sustained, while safely removing waste from low-income communities. The mechanism will be funded by Grand Challenges Canada (GCC) and Osprey Foundation.

Speaking during the launch, Lindsay Stradley, Co-Founder and Executive Director of Fresh Life noted: “The launch of the Results-Based Financing initiative marks a new era for the urban sanitation sector in Kenya. This mechanism represents a significant step towards achieving universal access to improved sanitation. By focusing on results, we can ensure that every shilling spent translates into real, measurable improvements in public health and quality of life.”

“The government’s role is to create an enabling environment for the private sector and implementing partners. The Ministry has been at work, strengthening coordination at the national and county level and with non-state actors to enhance urban sanitation.” noted Festus Mutuku, Superintendent Senior Water Engineering, Ministry of Water, Sanitation and Irrigation.

WSUP Kenya and Fresh Life Partner to Expand Affordable Sanitation Access in Kenya

Griffins Toroitich — Wed, 25 Sep 2024 11:56:23 +0000

Nairobi, Kenya. 18 September 2024 – WSUP Kenya and Fresh Life have jointly signed a memorandum of collaboration to address sanitation challenges in low-income areas across Kenya.The five-year partnership aims to deliver impactful sanitation solutions to underserved communities, addressing key challenges such as open defecation, inadequate sanitation infrastructure, and poor hygiene practices. Together, the organizations will support Kenya’s ambition to achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goal 6, ensuring water and sanitation for all.

WSUP Kenya and Fresh Life will work together to:
● Increase sanitation coverage by delivering sanitation solutions, including safe waste collection and transportation for residents in low-income areas.
● Enhance safe sanitation services through engaging and formalizing Manual Pit Emptiers (MPEs) and Vacuum Truck Operators (VTOs), developing county policies, and building capacity for faecal sludge management.
● Work with the national regulator to create operational sanitation standards
targeting low-income areas and informal settlements.
● Develop city-wide inclusive sanitation plans and collaborate with local
governments to ensure widespread access to improved sanitation facilities.
● Run joint outreach and capacity-building campaigns for communities to raise awareness of hygiene practices, particularly handwashing and proper waste management.
● Identify areas with inadequate sanitation, install new sanitation facilities, and renovate existing ones to improve access and ensure compliance with health standards.

WSUP Kenya Country Manager Mr. Antony Ambugo expressed excitement about partnering with Fresh Life to improve sanitation services for underserved communities in Kenya.

“We hope that our shared goal of ensuring access to safe and dignified sanitation for all and our combined expertise and resources will help us transform sanitation access in low-income areas. We will be looking at how to adopt a socially inclusive market-based sanitation approach to revolutionize access to sanitation products and services in low-income urban areas. Today, WSUP has reached 8,971,117 people with improved sanitation and we hope that this partnership with Fresh Life is expected to have a lasting impact on the health and well-being of the people served,” said Mr. Ambugo.

Fresh Life Managing Director Mr. Anthony Mulinge noted that Fresh Life is committed to providing innovative and affordable sanitation solutions to communities that need them most.

Launch of Fresh Life Toilets in Mombasa County

Griffins Toroitich — Thu, 21 Mar 2024 13:46:49 +0000

Hon. Emmily Achieng, Mombasa County Executive Committee Member (CECM), Department of Water, Natural Resources and Climate Change Resilience (C), Anthony Mulinge, Fresh Life Managing Director (L), Meltus Mugomi, Fresh Life Director of New Cities (R), Farah Abdirahim, MOWASSCO Managing Director and County Government of Mombasa representatives during the launch of the inaugural Fresh Life Toilets in Mombasa County.

Fresh Life and MOWASSCO MoU signing ceremony

cliff — Fri, 03 Nov 2023 11:34:29 +0000

Hon. Emmily Achieng, Mombasa County Executive Committee Member (CECM), Department of Water, Natural Resources and Climate Change Resilience (C), Anthony Mulinge, Fresh Life Managing Director (L) and Farah Abdirahim, MOWASSCO Managing Director, at the signing ceremony of an MoU between Fresh Life and MOWASSCO that will enable Mombasa residents in informal settlements and low income areas benefit from access to safely managed sanitation through a network of Fresh Life Toilets.

Container Based Sanitation: A Promising Approach to Mitigate Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Sanitation

cliff — Mon, 19 Dec 2022 08:00:55 +0000

Guest blog by Emma Payne- PhD student, Environmental Engineering, University of Colorado Boulder

When you think of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, you might think of highways crowded with gas-guzzling cars or large fossil fuel power plants pumping carbon dioxide and other GHGs into the atmosphere. But one significant, yet often overlooked, contributor to GHG emissions is sanitation.

Authors of a study conducted in Kampala, Uganda, found that the sanitation value chain – including waste collection, transport, and treatment – may account for more than half of all of Kampala’s citywide GHG emissions¹ . Furthermore, the current methods for calculating GHG emissions from sanitation may underestimate emissions by up to one third, meaning that the problem may be much larger than we currently recognize .

To add to the challenge, emissions from sanitation are expected to increase in coming years. As of 2020, approximately 3.6 billion people worldwide still lack access to safely managed sanitation² , and to meet UN Sustainable Development Goal 6 (universal access to water and sanitation for all by 2030), access to safely managed sanitation must increase drastically over the next several years. If all of these individuals will only have access to “status quo” sanitation options, then sanitation-related emissions are bound to increase. The sanitation sector is thus faced with a critical challenge: how do we increase access to safe and equitable sanitation for 3.6 billion people without emitting additional GHGs and adding to the climate crisis?

Non-sewered sanitation (NSS) systems such as improved pit latrines and septic tanks are often considered viable solutions to increase sanitation access in areas where sewered infrastructure is infeasible or impractical. However, these approaches can actually be worse than sewers from a climate perspective3 . In fact, pit latrines, open sewers, and primary wastewater treatment are some of the worst offenders as it relates to GHG emissions³.

In wet, stagnant environments with minimal air exchange, such as pit latrines and stabilization ponds, bacteria decompose fecal sludge to produce methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O), two extremely potent GHGs. The global warming potential of methane and nitrous oxide are 25 and 273, respectively, meaning that CH4 and N2O are 25 and 273 times stronger greenhouse gasses than carbon dioxide, so emitting even a little CH4 and N2O can have a very harmful climate impact. It is estimated that septic tanks and latrines emit 377 Tg of methane annually, accounting for around 2.7% of all human-caused CH4 emissions globally⁴ . In India, it is expected that

national annual GHG emissions will increase by 7% if pit latrines alone are relied upon to close the sanitation access gap⁵ . Given the urgency of addressing climate change and international commitments to cut carbon emissions, the sanitation sector is in need of more climate-friendly solutions.

Container-based sanitation (CBS) is one such solution. CBS is a model whereby waste is collected in waterless, and at times urine-diverting, toilets. The sealable containers from the toilets are collected and replaced with clean, empty containers daily or a few times per week. Full containers are then transported to a central location for treatment or disposal. Because the waste remains dry and spends little time between containment and treatment, aerobic (i.e. oxygen-rich) conditions are maintained in the containers. This is key to reducing GHG emissions, as anaerobic (i.e. oxygen-poor) conditions, which are often present in pit latrines or conventional wastewater treatment such as stabilization ponds, lead to the production of methane and nitrous oxide.

Beyond averting the production of these powerful GHGs, CBS also provides opportunities for waste valorization, as the collected fecal sludge can be recycled and turned into useful byproducts such as organic fertilizer, animal feed, or biomass briquettes. Furthermore, the byproducts themselves have additional climate benefits, as they replace more carbon-intensive alternatives, such as organic fertilizer replacing chemical fertilizer and biomass briquettes replacing fossil fuels. It is estimated that if CBS service providers served 10% of the 1 billion people living in urban settlements globally, up to 1.3 Tg of CO2 equivalent could be prevented⁶

In Nairobi, Kenya, Fresh Life deploys CBS technology at scale, to over 135,000 residents of informal settlements. Fresh Life collects fecal sludge from CBS toilets and transports the waste to Regen Organics, its partner under the Sanergy Collaborative, for treatment at their manufacturing plant. At this facility, a circular economy approach is employed wherein the waste is aerobically processed and turned into byproducts such as insect-based protein for animal feed, organic fertilizer, and biomass briquettes. In 2020, the carbon offset potential for the entire value chain deployed by the Sanergy Collaborative in Nairobi was calculated to be 19,000 tonnes of CO2 equivalent per year⁶ . This means that at 2020 operating volumes, Fresh Life and Regen Organics prevented 19,000 tonnes of CO2 from being added to the atmosphere by treating sanitation, agriculture, and food waste, which is equivalent to removing 4,200 cars from the road! The magnitude of this carbon offset is only slated to grow as the Sanergy Collaborative scales across Kenya and other African countries.

This climate benefit – beyond being valuable and impressive in and of itself – can be quantified and monetized through carbon credits. Carbon credits are a type of climate financing mechanism which allows environmentally-friendly organizations to earn additional revenue on the basis oftheir positive climate impact by measuring and selling the climate benefits or reduction in GHG emissions that they generate.

Currently, Fresh Life and Regen Organics are pursuing carbon credits for their GHG-reducing operations. The lessons learned from their carbon credit project registrations will pave the way for other CBS service providers and/or circular economy-based waste treatment organizations to register carbon projects of their own, thereby funding expanded services and ultimately moving us towards a more climate-friendly sanitation sector.

¹ Johnson, J., Zakaria, F., Nkurunziza, A.G., Way, C., Camargo-Valero, M.A., Evans, B. (2022). Whole-system analysis reveals high greenhouse-gas emissions from citywide sanitation in Kampala, Uganda. Communications Earth & Environment. 3(1), 1-10.

²Progress on household drinking water, sanitation and hygiene 2000-2020: five years into the SDGs. Geneva: World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), 2021. License: CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO

³Henderson, A., Cashman, S., Bartram, D. (2022) Assessing the Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Other Impacts of Sewage Management: Summary Report for Policymakers. ERG.

⁴ Cheng, S., Long, J., Evans, B., Zhan, Z., Li, T., Chen, C., Mang, H.-P., & Li, Z. (2022). Non-negligible greenhouse gas emissions from non-sewered sanitation systems: A meta-analysis. Environmental Research, 212, 113468. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envres.2022.113468

⁵Kulak, M.; Shah, N.; Sawant, N.; Unger, N.; King, H. (2017) Technology Choices in Scaling up Sanitation Can Significantly Affect Greenhouse Gas Emissions and the Fertiliser Gap in India. Journal of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene for Development, 7 (3), 466–476

⁶Trondsen, L.H., Bischak, E., McNicol, G., Reid., M., Ryals, R., Russel, K. (2019) Calculating the Climate Change Mitigation Potential of Container-Based Sanitation Systems [Poster]. UNC Water and Health Conference, October 2019, Chapel Hill, NC.