Work

Sanitary civility: sanitation and urban co-existence in Maputo City, Mozambique

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: In the absence of well-maintained public sanitation infrastructures and adequate service delivery, negotiating sanitation forms an important component of urban life. In Maputo, Mozambique, the responsibility for keeping bodies, houses, toilets and spaces clean falls on the residents. We document these responsibilities and the material and social work they entail. Residents continuously engage in negotiations over what it means to be sanitary, and over the distribution of sanitary responsibilities. These negotiations help enact and sustain wider societal norms about ways of living together. We propose the term ‘sanitary civility’ to capture this relationship between sanitation and city-making. Beyond the importance of agreements on sanitary behaviour in making urban life possible, the term helps to explain how ‘being (seen as) sanitary’ importantly depends on arrangements with neighbours. This understanding challenges prevailing development and public health approaches to, and interventions in, urban sanitation that focus on individual behaviour change.

Source: Environment and Urbanization

DOI: 10.1177/09562478251317972

Authors: Adriano Biza, Maria Rusca, Michelle Kooy, Margreet Zwarteveen

Institutions: Eduardo Mondlane University, IHE Delft Institute for Water Education, University of Manchester, University of Amsterdam

Language: English

Topic: Urban and Rural Development Challenges

Subfield: Urban Studies

Field: Social Sciences

Domain: Social Sciences

SDGs: Sustainable cities and communities, Clean water and sanitation, Peace, justice, and strong institutions

Open Access status: green

Funder: Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek