Grassroots Innovations in Low-Cost Sanitation Management

Abstract

Grassroots sanitation innovations—locally invented, adapted, or community-governed solutions—have become a practical route to safer sanitation in resource-constrained settings. They range from community mobilization models that end open defecation to frugal toilet designs, informal-settlement service models, and community-run fecal sludge treatment. This paper reviews major categories of grassroots innovations in low-cost sanitation management and explains how they work across the sanitation “service chain” (containment, emptying/transport, treatment, and safe reuse/disposal). It situates these innovations against persistent global gaps: in 2022, 3.5 billion people still lacked safely managed sanitation, including 419 million practicing open defecation. Using illustrative evidence from community-led total sanitation (CLTS), urine-diverting/ecological sanitation, container-based sanitation (CBS), and district-level fecal sludge treatment plants (FSTPs), the paper proposes an actionable framework for designing, financing, and scaling grassroots sanitation while safeguarding inclusion, dignity, and public health.