Scheduled desludging model and pit latrine emptying mitigation measures for peri-urban areas, Lusaka, Zambia: A hermeneutic phenomenological approach

The study purpose was to improve the sanitation situation in George Compound, one of the peri-urban areas in Lusaka, Zambia. The researcher adopted an interpretive hermeneutic paradigm in which knowledge was established through Gadamer’s hermeneutic cycle, relying on iterations and fusion of horizons by merging the researcher’s background and participants’ views. Epistemologically, the researcher adopted a subjective epistemological stance in which knowledge was generated through the researcher’s personal experiences and reflective interaction with participants. Further, the researcher adopted a value-bound axiological stance, hence acknowledging his positionality in terms of personal background, experience, values, and beliefs. The study sample size was 29 participants, disaggregated as 10 males, 15 women, and 4 key informants. The study uncovers that scheduled desludging is a strategy that ensures predictable and affordable pit emptying. The study established that households register their pit latrines and make small routine contributions to facilitate emptying. The study further notes that the introduction of scheduled desludging enables community residents in the peri-urban areas to easily empty the pit latrines once they fill up. Moreover, the desludging has environmental and public health benefits, which include, among others, prevention of the pit latrines from overflowing due to delayed pit emptying of pit latrines by most customers, which is typical of most peri-urban areas in Lusaka. The study informs policy on strengthening the capacity of service providers to ensure a timely and efficient turnaround period for desludging. Ensure strengthening the environmental laws on licensing of transporters of effluent to avert desludging in the open environment premised on the low restorative charges that are significantly non-deterrent to the polluters. The study concludes that scheduled desludging is a game changer in resolving on-site sanitation pit emptying challenges given the financial constraints that many residents face. The study recommends strengthening capacities of service providers to ensure a timely and efficient turnaround period of desludging. The finding is novel because it offers peri-urban and institutional insights into pit emptying through scheduled desludging, considering that desludging previously lacked a scheduled plan; as a result, most households chose to relocate and construct new pit latrines elsewhere. The study purpose was to improve the sanitation situation in George Compound, one of the peri-urban areas in Lusaka, Zambia.