Selection of appropriate on-site household sanitation options for rural communities of Zimbabwe – case of Mbire district, Zimbabwe

ABSTRACT

Selecting an appropriate sanitation option involves multiple stakeholders with often conflicting objectives. A multiple criteria decision analysis (MCDA) framework was developed to inform decision makers on selecting appropriate sanitation options for rural communities. Criteria established from literature were evaluated and weighted on-line by stakeholders. A performance matrix was developed by assigning weights to criteria and scoring alternatives. Selection of alternatives was based on a composite appropriateness index from a rank using the simple multi-attribute ranking technique. The framework was evaluated by verification, validation and sensitivity analysis. Five alternatives were evaluated on 14 decision criteria. The first preferred alternative was the urine diverting dry toilet (72.54) then the Blair ventilated improved pit latrine (67.10). The framework was commented as reasonable and robust. A simple and transparent MCDA framework was developed considering local conditions in a participatory manner to select appropriate alternatives for rural sanitation where a single option is encouraged.

KEYWORDS:

• Alternative options
• appropriate technology
• rural communities
• sanitation planning

Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge the involvement of various stakeholders in the study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Data availability statement

All relevant data are included in the paper or its supplemental materials.

Supplemental data

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/09603123.2023.2166021.

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported that there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.