Yopougon, Abidjan, January 22, 2019: Through its urban sanitation program, Sanitation Service Delivery (SSD), USAID trains and encourages masons, plumbers, building technicians,and other private sectors actors to provide quality sanitation services and products. Implemented by the Population Services International (PSI), the project has trained entrepreneurs since 2014. Under a brand created by SSD, those entrepreneurs offer low-cost and effective sanitation products including latrines, septic tanks, double pit latrines to low income households in Benin and Côte d'Ivoire.

On January 22, 2020, USAID staff visited a few project sites and met beneficiaries in the municipality of Yopougon, Abidjan. The project has been active since 2016 in this poor urban community. The team was led by Katherine Brucker,  U.S. Embassy in Abidjan, Chargé d'Affairé, officers from USAID/Côte d'Ivoire including USAID Country Representative, Nancy Lowenthal, and Environment Officer of the Regional Economic Growth Office in Accra (USAID/West Africa) Margaret McMorrow.

During the visit, the team interacted with sanitation entrepreneurs affiliated to the SSD project ,end-users of the various sanitation products as well as the National Sanitation and Drainage Board of Côte d'Ivoire.

The  findings was that the project has not only been championing access to low-cost and quality sanitation services and products but has also empowered individuals to be successful sanitation entrepreneurs.

Among some of the thriving sanitation entrepreneurs are Seydou Bakayoko and David Souemy. After about two years of operation, they expanded their enterprises and are gaining increasing popularity as the preferred sanitation service providers in their neighborhoods.

Ms Konaté, a user, who was using an old, direct pit latrine before she knew about the project was happy to share the improved quality and safety of the Sani Plus latrines. “Before, odors from the toilet  could be smelled in our living room but with Sani Plus, there is no  more smell”, she exclaimed.

Katherine Brucker, commended the Sani Plus contractors and the SSD team for their innovative interventions to improve the sanitation conditions of low-income households.