Giving Compass' Take:

• Sanergy helps growing cities develop the communication and infrastructure tools they need to do deal with the sewage created by their expanding population. 

• What are the consequences of swift growth in underprepared cities? How can philanthropy help increase the infrastructure capacity of cities? 

 • Find out how one organization in gamifying urban sanitation services


The interaction of diverse people all packed inside a city can quickly lead to dynamic new ideas and inventions. Cities help to foster communication, collaboration, and the exchange of ideas.

But when cities lack sufficient sewage systems, those same urban conditions can also lead to an exchange of bacteria and disease.

That’s where Sanergy comes in.

The organization gives communities in Nairobi, Kenya and other fast-growing cities the vocabulary to discuss defecation and the tools to manage human waste.

“A city is a system of networks connecting residents to services and to each other,” said Sanergy operations manager Lindsay Stradley in a TED Talk published Thursday. “But what happens when one of these networks is missing?”

Read the full article about helping growing cities by David Brand at Global Citizen.