Colin McFarlane, Professor of Urban Geography, Durham University, presents a lecture based on his recent book, 'Waste and the City'. He highlights that in the wake of the COVID19 pandemic, the relationship between the health of the city and good sanitation has never been more important. He argues that sanitation is one of modern urban life’s most neglected issues. This lecture argues for a renewed, equitable investment in sanitation as a foundation of urban social life. Adopting Henri Lefebvre’s concept of ‘the right to the city’, it uses the notion of ‘citylife’ to reframe the discourse on sanitation from a narrowlydefined policy discussion to a question of the democratic right to public life.