Ikotoilets: The ideal one-stop-shops

*This post has been updated following the comments below*

David Kuria founded Ecotact with a mission to contribute to the ongoing sanitation crisis in Kenya, the scale of which he came to understand when he worked personally with the Nairobi City Council  (NCC) and NGOs (Njeru, 2013). To Kuria, the need to devise and implement an "integrative, financially sustainable and functional sanitation delivery system" (ibid) was imperative to the provision of hygienic public toilet services. 

Toilet facilities were previously provided by the NCC, who were unable to solve the urgent sanitation crisis that prevailed (Karuga, 2010 in Njeru, 2013). This included complaints of wet slippery floors, lingering stenches, lack of basic amenities like toilet paper and running water, and also risks of being robbed by thugs (Medegwa, 2012). There was a stark failure and lack of care to provide communities with the acceptable quality of public toilets- most of them chronologically unhygienic and some even illegal privatised (Njeru, 2013). Such absence of basic dignity in these poor, dilapidated facilities spurred Kuria to try and restore "social dignity in ever growing urban populations" (ibid) with his Ikotoilet project under Ecotact. 

Fig 1: An example of an Ikotoilet facility in Nairobi (Global Innovation Exchange, 2018). It can be seen that the facility looks clean and is manned by a front desk which collects fees clearly partitioned between male and female facilities.

Ikotoilets, especially those built in city centers, are unique in incorporating other facilities like shops, shoeshiners, money remittance centres, and platforms for outdoor advertising (Njeru, 2014). Though the objective purpose of toilets is important, Kuria's underlying social mission was also to transform public sanitation from "a matter of cultural taboo and humiliation" to a more comfortably and widely talked about feature of urban centres (Njeru, 2013).  The combination of toilet facilities with other general basic services has enabled Ikotoilets to blend in with surrounding built environment, whilst still being distinctive enough to "cultivate a shared identity and to give users an aura of cleanliness even before they step in" (Njeru, 2014). He also had public figures like Miss Kenya, the Vice-president and religious leaders partake in his campaign to shed sanitation taboo, as well as attained the Guinness World Record for 'most number of people to wash their hands in one day' (On the Up, 2011)!  

In slums, Ikotoilets are customized even further as a "one-stop-shopping sanitation experience", which allow individuals to not only relieve themselves, but also shower and draw clean potable water (ibid). They have become an avenue for the transformation and restoration of social dignity in ever growing urban populations (Mwende, 2012), adding value to society through the social inclusiveness of the sanitation delivery system and job opportunities it offers (Njeru, 2013). 

I found the above video to be informative and succinct in its explanation of how Ikotoilets work, along with its effectiveness and review. As seen, toilets are generally clean and constantly supervised by a team of employees who ensure their hygiene. Attached to the toilets are mini marts selling a variety of necessities, shoe shiners and other revenue-generating services like aforementioned. The Ikotoilet block in the video receives about 600 customers a day, who are charged 7 cents each. Each day, they can make 3000 to 5000 shillings a day, and together with the income from rent covers overhead costs and repay loans (On the Up, 2011).17% of annual revenue from each facility come from non-toilet uses that provide valuable revenue stream that allows for cross-subsidization of toilet operations (Njeru, 2014). Allowing multi-use facilities instead of purely toilet facilities means that reliance on 'pay and use' fees for cost recovery is reduced, creating a more sustainable business model (Njeru, 2013). With a team of 10 working full-time at each location, this has also increased employment in communities (HydrateLife, 2012).

Ikotoilets are also environmental friendly, installed with water saving innovations like waterless urinals, low-flush cisterns and water-saving taps (Mwende, 2012). Urine harvested is segregated and sold to companies for onward production of fertilizer, and excreta is also used to generate methane gas and serve as an alternative energy source (ibid). The utilization of urea in urine to make eco-fertilizer even presents a solution for Kenya's agricultural problems, and furthermore for Africa at large (ibid). In slums, biodigesters are further fitted to generate the aforementioned methane gas, which local communities use for lighting and cooking, and as raw materials for fertilizer use (Njeru, 2014). 

Ikotoilet translates to 'There is a Toilet', and in this case, it means public toilets that provide for a sense of prestige, comfort, convenience and safety (Avvannavar and Mari, 2008 in Njeru, 2014).  Women have even given birth in Ikotoilets, and commented about how it made them feel proud to be Kenyan- the choice to use Ikotoilets as places for emergency childbirth is clearly in line with the user's appreciation of gender accommodative and hygienic features of these facilities (Njeru, 2013). "They're smart and decent", "I like them"- these are phrases that an interviewee in the video used to describe the Ikotoilets. For a public utility that was once shunned in fear of being unsafe and unhygienic, Kuria has come incredibly far in converting the facility into something that the community can be proud of. What particularly interests me about Ikotoilets and previously discussed Peepoo is how it can be run successfully as a social entrepreneurship model. If such business models are truly effective, they could be paving the way for further success sustainable business stories.