Reflexive assessment of practical and holistic sanitation development toolsusing the rural and peri-urban case of Mexico

摘要

Lack of sanitation affects the lives of billions of people worldwide. It is nowgenerally agreed that sustainable solutions to this complex problem requiresocial and cultural factors to be addressed in addition to the habitual economicand technical aspects. Increasingly, sector professionals view the fragmentedapproaches to sanitation as a limiting factor. This refers to the fragmentationof the knowledge on the subject among often hermetic disciplines and to thedistribution of political mandates on sanitation across many institutions, whichindependently tackle specific aspects of the issue. Holistic approaches haveoften been suggested as a solution. This paper presents the development of sucha holistic approach, designed to assess sanitation development in rural and pen-urban settings. Tested in three Mexican communities, it relies on qualitativeresearch tools to identify critical influences to sanitation development. Thisarticle presents generic results about micro and macro-factors affectingsanitation development in Mexican villages, and reflexively examines theresearch process as well as the strengths and limitations of the approach. Theconceptual map developed for each case study successfully highlights theinterconnectedness of all factors affecting sanitation development. Despite someweaknesses, these maps constitute a practical assessment tool forinterdisciplinary teams deployed in integrated water and sanitation developmentprograms and a valuable didactic tool for training activities. (C) 2010 ElsevierLtd. All rights reserved.