Gender-based violence and sanitation in urban slums (Zambia)

This research was conducted as a case study in Kanyama, Lusaka, using daily timelines, semi-structured interviews, and photovoice. People in Kanyama mostly use unimproved shared toilets. The study found that people used bucket toilets at night whether they had improved toilets, unimproved toilets, or did not have toilets at all. Bucket toilets were identified as a possible symbol of sociocultural violence. Through them, women were consigned to seeing, smelling, and touching the excreta of their household members. Sexual violence was also identified in the form of rape and peeping, and the occurrence of rape whilst using toilets was reported. Physical violence was used by some men to enforce women’s sanitary roles, and some women were physically assaulted when their children defecated openly in communal spaces. Psychological violence was documented in the form of women being prevented from going to use toilets for fear of being raped. The research showed that a shift must be made from viewing sanitation as merely an engineering problem, but also a sociocultural problem. It was therefore recommended that there should be a review of the JMP sanitation ladder to address sanitation challenges and realities in different contexts, and that practitioners must “climb down” and reconsider the problem they are trying to solve. We must empathize with the human beings that use toilets, rather than focus solely on the excreta that toilets conceal.