Actor-oriented analysis of power relationships behind heterogeneous sanitation infrastructure in Kampala, Uganda

Abstract

This study employed an actor-oriented analysis of the power relations underlying Kampala’s Heterogeneous Sanitation Infrastructures (HSIs). Unlike much existing research – which remains largely reductionist and deconstructive – this study, through the lens of Situated Urban Political Ecology (SUPE), offers critical insights into the everyday modalities of sanitation inequality across the sanitation gradient from faecal waste containment to treatment and disposal. It used a primarily qualitative approach involving in-depth key informant interviews, follow-along participant observation (FAPO), critical observation, and literature reviews. The analysis revealed that, unlike the centralised sewerage system, Kampala’s HSIs were tethered by complex power relational logics and socio-material dynamics. Subsequently, sanitation access was enabled for some, while the cycle of sanitation inequality persisted for others. These HSIs can be conceptualised as a continuum from “infrastructures of survival” to “disruptive infrastructures,” featuring unpredictable and impervious faecal flows contrasting with more coherent, socially networked ones. These logics and dynamics influenced the HSI (re)production through institutional legitimacy, social acceptance, economic affordability, and control over the adoption, promotion, and diffusion of various socio-technological options to close sanitation infrastructure deficits. In conclusion, HSIs are important for understanding how power relations exacerbate or mitigate sanitation inequalities in cities like Kampala. Such engagement enables decoding urban life and informing strategies against pervasive challenges like sanitation inequality. Key actors like the KCCA and NWSC should integrate HSIs and micro-level actors (e.g. landlords/ladies, community toilet caretakers, managers etc.) into urban sanitation programming; reskill urban development professionals emphasising trans-disciplinarity, critical thinking, and innovative local solutions; and balance market-based approaches with public sanitation services to close infrastructure deficits.