Lesotho advances with sanitation coverage but faces wastewater management challenges

Access to sanitation in Lesotho has improved markedly over the past decade, while there have also been recent challenges in ensuring effective collection and treatment of wastewater. While access to sanitation has increased by some 48% during the past decade, an infrastructure update provided by the Lesotho Electricity and Water Authority (LEWA) reports remaining issues with wastewater collection and treatment. LEWA reports that inspections of the Water and Sewerage Company (WASCO) revealed a failure to meet some set standards for effluent quality and poor up-keep of treatment plants. Further analysis of the data shows that Company failed to meet its water and sewerage connection targets. Also, non-compliance with licence requirements such as the submission of a leakage reduction programme to LEWA remained a challenge for WASCO.

The effective storage and treatment of municipal wastewater is a critical element within the overall effort to ensure and protect human and environmental health. Municipal wastewater contains a variety of pathogens which in turn reflect the carrier state and infection levels within a community. In addition, the contamination of surface water with untreated or partially treated wastewater may lead to adverse health. For the effective management of public health, it is important for government, utilities and other stakeholders to have access to, amongst other things, inform policy- and decision makers of where to focus efforts and which solutions are most effective to ensure the greatest possible gains with existing resources.

In the context of Sustainable Development Goal 6 on water and sanitation, data is gathered for reporting on eleven indicators, amongst which SDG 6.2 on sanitation and SDG 6.3 on wastewater. Indicator 6.2.1a tracks the proportion of population that is using an improved sanitation facility, which is not shared with other households, and where the excreta produced is either treated and disposed in situ, stored temporarily and then emptied and transported to treatment off-site, or transported through a sewer with wastewater and then treated off-site.

A related indicator is Indicator 6.3.1, which tracks the proportion of domestic and industrial wastewater flow safely treated. Although data has been collected on access to sanitation for several decades, preceding the SDG period, the collection of data on indicators such as 6.3.1 on wastewater is still under development in most countries and therefore there is a relative lack of systematic and comprehensive information on these important indicators. 

Access to sanitation in Lesotho has improved steadily over the past decade: according to data from the Joint Monitoring Programme, 48% of the population on Lesotho currently have access to safely managed sanitation services, against 32,5% in 2012, which represents a 48% increase in a decade. In the context of the definition of ‘safely managed sanitation’ during the implementation period of the Sustainable Development Goals, this refers to the proportion of the population “using an improved sanitation facility that is not shared with other households, from which excreta are safely disposed of in situ or removed and treated off-site”. The proportion of the population with access to ‘basic’ sanitation services is 2,7%, up from 2% a decade ago.

In general, Lesotho’s towns and adjacent rural areas have a sound water supply infrastructure which achieves the goal of supplying both institutional and household needs. Lesotho’s Water and Sewerage Company (WASCO) is tasked with providing urban water and sanitation services. In part, WASCO conducts its activities in partnership with development partners. For instance, The European Union and the AfDB are supporting the Lowlands Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Project (LRWSSP) in the districts of Berea and Maseru along the routes of the Metolong Dam Water Supply Project (MDWSP) which provides bulk water supply infrastructure. These two projects – LRWSSP and MDWSP)- are linked as a measure in support of Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) as well as in an effort to support donor coordination.

However, according to LEWA, which regulates the sector in Lesotho and which has licensed WASCO to provide sewerage services, WASCO faces a variety of challenges which prevent it from providing an outstanding level of service. Amongst other factors, responsibilities are distributed among different actors along the sanitation chain and thus it is for instance the responsibility of the user of sewage services to ensure that if there is a sewage leak in the yard, it is repaired. On the other hand, the maintenance of public toilets are a responsibility of local government.   In addition, WASCO reports that rapid urbanization, improper town planning and financial constraints contribute to the challenges it faces in effectively managing urban wastewater issues. 

However, the wastewater collection and treatment network has limited coverage, resulting in widespread use of on-site solutions such as conservancy tanks, which are emptied using tankers. The design of these systems is not regulated, and in practice there is widespread leakage and incidence of sewerage overflows.  Because both construction and emptying can involve significant costs, substandard means of construction and emptying are sometimes employed by households, builders and tankers. The result is leakage of sewerage into the environment, with associated environmental degradation and the generation of risks to public health.  New methods of approaching wastewater are needed.