Towards a transportation/mobility grounding for toilet access crisis in African cities

Africa is one of the key sites of global toilet suffering, with some 779 million people experiencing deficient access to adequate, safe and clean toilets. Sanitation and development scholars and practitioners have extensively documented the impacts of toilet suffering and inadequate access to sanitation generally in Africa on various dimensions of sustainable development, including its adverse effects on public health (e.g., disease impacts); women and girl’s safety (e.g., toilet access-linked sexual violence); girl-child education (e.g. school absenteeism and abandonment among girls linked to toilet access impediments during menstruation) and the economy generally (e.g., impact on health spending and productivity losses). Much less, however, is known about the effects on sustainable urban transport. This paper contributes to the limited research on toilet access and mobility in African cities. It argues that toilet suffering in urban transport context poses important sustainability concerns related, but not limited, to pleasant mobility experience; equitable everyday access, public participation and urban citizenship; road safety; occupational health and safety that could benefit from knowledge building and further learning. The paper aims to stimulate a shift towards making toilet access more valued and embedded in urban and mobility policy and research in Africa.