Challenges of adoption of urine-diversion dry toilets technology as sanitation option by coastal communities of Mkuranga District in Tanzania

Mkuranga District council in collaboration with African Medical and Research Foundation (AMREF) introduced ecological sanitation option using urine-diversion dry toilets (UDDT) to the community between 2007 and 2009, which was later declared unsuccessful. This study analyzed factors that hindered the uptake of UDDT by the community by assessing the project implementation strategy. Techniques used for the study were questionnaire, interviews, observation and focus group discussion while respondents were government official and the community at the household level. The study reveals that the literacy level in Mkuranga district is 79.1%, but only 40.6% had some knowledge of ecological sanitation although only 9% proves that. About 52% of the respondents are using conventional pit latrines, but 27.3% have no toilet facilities. There was no evidence of adoption of UDDT technology at household level and only one of the seven UDDTs constructed by the project is operational. There was no sufficient evidence to suggest that Mkuranga District has sufficiently supported the project through supervision, advocacy and addressing community requirements. As a result, the idea came in top-bottom approach which failed because communities were not adequately involved in the project.