Applying the life-cycle costs approach : latrine costs in Burkina Faso

Burkina Faso is one the poorest countries in the world, ranking 177 out of 182 countries on the UNDP’s Human Development Index, and with a per capita GDP of US$ 598 in 2010. This sub-Saharan state has made considerable efforts in the past ten years to improve the access of its population to basic sanitation services. This resulted in 2008, in the setting up of the Direction Générale de l’Assainissement des Eaux Usées et Excréta (DGAEUE) [General directorate for waste water and excreta management], while in 2010, more than US$ 341 million were allocated to the Plan national d’approvisionnement en eau potable et en assainissement (PN-AEPA), [National Programme for Water Supply and Sanitation 2010]. However, Burkina Faso is still far from achieving its target to ensure that 55% of the population have improved national sanitation coverage by 2015. The Joint Monitoring Programme (JMP) estimates that in 2008, more than 75% of the population in rural areas practiced open defecation. More recently, a national survey conducted by DGAEUE showed that less than 10% of the urban population and less than 1% of the rural population had access to improved sanitation. These findings highlight the huge efforts still required to achieve the 2015 sanitation target. [authors abstract]

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