Safe, affordable...and profitable? A ground-breaking public-private sector led sanitation service: SWEEP

• Helping cities adapt to climate change
• Bringing the circular economy into sanitation
• A model that is scalable
• What makes the SWEEP model profitable

Cities in Bangladesh, like many countries, have a major sanitation problem.

Tackling this issue requires more than simply building toilets. It is about finding safe and affordable ways in which waste can be collected and safely treated.

Dhaka is the only city in Bangladesh with a sewer system, but only 20% of its population, mainly in high-income areas, is connected. With the lack of sewerage connections, majority of the residents rely on pit latrines and septic tanks which need regular emptying.

However, a safe, affordable service to empty waste and transport for treatment is not available for most urban residents. As a result, they resort to unsafe improvised methods of managing human waste which has a direct impact on their health, due to the spread of diseases, and on the environment, with the contamination of water sources.

How SWEEP is helping cities adapt to climate change

Bangladesh is one of the most climate-vulnerable countries in the world. Climatic challenges such as flooding and rising sea levels are having a direct impact on water and sanitation in urban low-income areas.

The regular emptying of septic tanks that the SWEEP service encourages, helps prevent septic tanks from flooding and contaminating the environment.

“Climate change is skyrocketing the population of urban slums, even the envisioned citywide sewerage network might find it impossible to connect all those toilets. The scale-up of SWEEP can be the solution.” - Engr. Sudip Basak, Superintending Engineer, Chattogram City Corporation, Bangladesh

Bringing the circular economy into sanitation

Finding space to build traditional treatment plants in Dhaka, one of the most densely populated in the world, is a major challenge. But what if the waste could be converted into value?

WSUP and SWEEP operators have introduced a dewatering machine which is able to turn human waste into solids - which can be used as fertiliser or compost - and clean water. The machine takes up a fraction of the space of a typical treatment plant and is helping generate value from sanitation waste.

SWEEP: a scalable model

• Partnership between enterprises and local authorities
• Low start-up costs
• A flexible logistics model regardless of location

The SWEEP model was first tested in Dhaka in 2015, after which it was launched in the cities of Chattogram and Rangpur, and 5 other municipalities engaging 13 enterprises.

With significant recent investment in sanitation in Bangladesh (international financing institutions are investing in vacuum tankers and treatment facilities), there are new opportunities for further expansion of the SWEEP model, serving many more communities across the country.

What have we learnt about how SWEEP enterprises can be profitable?

SWEEP has shown for the first time that providing sanitation services to low-income customers can be profitable for the private sector in Bangladesh.

It creates an opportunity for private enterprises to enter the sanitation market by lowering barriers for entry through brokering contracts for enterprises to lease vacuum tankers from city corporations for a monthly fee, eliminating capex costs.

The waste is safely collected and transported to existing government-owned treatment facilities. Through a variable pricing structure, businesses can offer waste management services that are affordable for all, including low-income residents.

Apart from the model described above, we found a few key characteristics that are helping businesses make a profit and remain successful:

• A better control of overheads allows enterprises to be flexible and respond to threats and opportunities more quickly. Some of the main drivers of overheads are administration, management salaries, truck utilization rates as well as maintenance
• A cross-subsidy enables SWEEP enterprises to serve low-income customers at a discounted price, i.e., a higher fee is charged to middle and high-income customers
• Marketing services through a range of channels allow enterprises to see which drive the best uptake of services
• The mechanised sanitation market was new and relatively unproven when the SWEEP model was launched. The enterprises that adopted the model already had a business. Having looked at the maturity of these businesses, we found that enterprises with established customer databases and closer alignment with sanitation services, can more easily cross-sell when entering the sanitation market, and shared marketing and operational overhead costs improved profit margin
• Political support for sanitation services is a key driver in growing the market which lowers upfront costs for businesses to enter the market.

Want to get involved? Contact us via partnerships@wsup.com or https://www.wsup.com/about/contact-us/

Want to know more? Click on the resources below:

Would you like to run a sanitation business? Then try our game and find out what is needed to become a SWEEP entrepreneur.https://www.wsup.com/the-bottom-line/

With special thanks to:

And previous supporters:

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, The Stone Family Foundation, the UK Department for International Development (DFID), UNICEF and the Vitol Foundation.