Aachi aayo..k garni ??

The article “ Sanitation in National budget” in myrepublica clearly shows how lack of investment on sanitation facilities retards economic and social development of the country . Despite chalking myriad of sanitation related policies, progress made by the government to achieve these goals has been very gloomy. Story about government incompetency and huge public infrastructures deficit is not just limited to Nepal, numerous developing countries faces the same challenges. Growing number of private sector, especially in African nations are seeing lack of basic sanitation facilities as a huge investment opportunity. For example, In Kenya,less than 50 percent of population has access to basic sanitation services. Existing public toilets are inaccessible or are overcrowded, unhygienic and and lack privacy . A company called Ecotact, based in Nairobi ,Kenya saw lack of access to basic sanitation facilities as an opportunity to generate social value as well as financial return.It started providing affordable yet high-quality, public pay per use toilet and shower services to low-income communities in Kenya. Customers pay $0.06 USD (NPR 4.32) to use a facility.Ecotact's facilities saw more than five million uses in 2010.Through a Build-Operate-Transfer model of public-private partnership, Ecotact enters into long-term contracts with municipalities to use public land. In return the company bears all construction costs and operates the facilities for five years. But it relinquishes ultimate ownership of the facilities to the municipalities, which can decide whether to extend their contracts with Ecotact.Similar kind of PPP model,but tailored especially for Nepal needs to be experimented.Organization like Water Aid should leverage its pool of high human intellectual capital to innovate new strategies and influence the Government of Nepal and the private investors to partner and provide basic sanitation and water facilities to those who are deprived.Global trend suggest that using profit seeking investment to generate social good is very efficent to dent social and economic challenges and it provide solution at a scale that philanthropic and government interventions usually cannot achieve.