STOCKHOLM ENVIRONMENT INSTITUTE

EcoSanRes Programme

The EcoSanRes Programme for Improved Livelihoods Around the World

There is an urgent need for initiatives that will contribute to meet several of the Millennium Development Goals and the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation. We at EcoSanRes believe that the creation of ecosystem-based sanitation systems offers precisely such an initiative. EcoSanRes addresses a wide range of professionals, academics, teachers/trainers and decision-makers, who work with water provision, agriculture and food security, poverty alleviation, human health, environmental protection, human rights, child perspectives, gender aspects, participatory processes, income generation, financing and human settlements. We aspire to foster a viable worldwide debate on the important services of ecosystem-based sanitation -- ecological sanitation – and the resulting multi-faceted benefits.

Ecological Sanitation in a global perspective

How important is sanitation? Inadequate access to sanitation impacts human health and environmental safety. We also know that proper sanitation positively affects the individual’s nutritional status, disease resistance, income opportunities, self esteem, personal security, etc. Enhanced opportunities for improved livelihoods can be achieved through ecosystem-based sanitation with radical perspectives on gender balance, societal development, agricultural production and sustainability.

Worldwide, over 2.6 billion individuals live without sanitation. Another 2.8 billion individuals have access to some type of sanitation, mostly pit latrines, of which many are unhygienic and contaminate the human and natural environments. About 1.1 billion individuals have water-born sewerage of which 30% are connected to an advanced sewage treatment facility and the remaining 70% are sources of downstream contamination. Clearly, innovative sanitation solutions, firm institutional foundations and locally adapted technologies are required to help meet the MDGs in a sustainable way. Sanitation has now become part of the international development agenda along with water supply and human settlements as it was prioritized by the UN commission on Sustainable Development in 2004 and 2005.

Ecological sanitation for ecosystem-based societies

Ecological Sanitation (ecosan) is an approach that offers many advantages over and above sanitation provision, an otherwise much neglected issue, by closing the nutrient and water cycles. Essential features of ecosan are: containment, sanitization and reuse. Ecosan recommends that human excreta and household organics be sanitized and that the resulting plant nutrients and soil improvements be applied in agricultural production in the proximity of human settlements. The greywater from household showers, baths and kitchens undergoes treatment and is safely recycled or returned to nature. Ecosan proposes a sanitation system that reduces or eliminates the use of water as a means of disposal of faecal material. This is an important advantage since water shortages affect more than 40% of the world’s population, in over 80 countries. Additionally, waterbased sanitation discharges untreated sewage into rivers and other bodies of water and causes severe pollution problems around the world. Ninety percent of towns and cities in developing countries lack sewage treatment. Developed countries face the same problem; only 80 out of 600 large European Union cities have advanced/tertiary treatment. Another acute problem is contaminated sludge from conventional treatment facilities. This sludge is impossible to reuse for its nutrients and soil-improvement properties due to toxins. In summary, ecosan provides opportunities that are affordable and appropriate and aim to use soil as the processing system, not surface or groundwater.

EcoSanRes: Closing the Loop

Focus on closing the loop on sanitation

The Ecosan approach enables environment friendly recovery of nutrients and water. This should be compared with water-borne sewer systems that blend water-mixed human excreta with greywater, storm water and industrial effluents into a hazardous mix, including human pathogens and toxic compounds. Most cities are unable to cope with such a mega-sized water treatment problem. Pit latrines, septic tanks and cess pits often contaminate drinking water. By comparison, the ecosan household or community source-separates human excreta into urine, faeces, household organics and greywater. Each fraction is contained and handled separately. Human urine contains about 75% of the nutrients leaving the body and represents about 80% of the total excreta volume. The nutrient content of urine is comparable to commercial fertilizers. Sanitized faecal matter, composted with household organics, is an excellent soil conditioner. Ecological sanitation represents an approach to sanitation where human excreta is contained, sanitized and recovered for use in soil systems to enhance agricultural production. This closes the loop on the nutrients cycle.

Implementation

Ecosan initiatives are currently operating in developing and developed countries, including: Bangladesh, Bolivia, Burkina Faso, China, Côte d’Ivoire, Denmark, El Salvador, Ethiopia, Germany, Guinea, India, Kenya, Mali, Mexico, Mongolia, Mozambique, Nepal, Norway, Palestinian Territories, Peru, Senegal, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Switzerland, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Vietnam, and Zimbabwe. Evaluations reveal considerable achievements and demonstrate that ecosan is viable as a decentralised infrastructure application in diverse socio-economic locations in both rural and urban contexts, enabling equitable services for men, women, children, and the elderly.

The EcoSanRes programme

Sweden, through Sida and the SEI administered EcoSanRes Programme, is one of the major international actors promoting and developing the ecosan approach. Other international actors include: GTZ, WASTE, UNDP, Water and Sanitation Programme of the World Bank, WHO, UNICEF, WaterAid, EU, CREPA (West Africa), EAWAG and the Norwegian, Austrian, Dutch, German and Swiss bilateral agencies. The cornerstones of the EcoSanRes Programme include:

• Global institutional networking and policy development
• Capacity building, training and awareness raising
• Methods development, studies and evaluation
• Implementation in pilot projects, especially in urban and peri-urban areas

The worldwide EcoSanRes network of experts is engaged in policy promotion, capacity building, institutional development, technical innovations, and applied research in developed and developing countries. Urban ecosan pilot projects include: Erdos Eco-town (Inner Mongolia, China); Tepoztlán (Morelos, Mexico); and Kimberley and Buffalo City (South Africa). There is also an international discussion group, where scientific, technical and socio-economic ecosan-related issues are debated. For references, research findings, links, debate and announcements of the EcoSanRes Programme, please refer to www.ecosanres.org. To participate in the discussion group, please visit: groups.yahoo.com/group/ecosanres/.

EcoSanRes Programme

Ecological Sanitation: Background and Vision

Approximately half of humanity lacks any kind of sanitation. The situation is unlikely to change soon if conventional approaches are continually promoted. With rapid urbanisation, population growth, growing income disparities and increasing water scarcity, conventional approaches are becoming increasingly too costly, too complex, or just plain technically inappropriate. In addition to a changing world affecting sanitation solutions, conventional sanitary approaches are leading to other problems. Underlying the conventional approach to sanitation is an assumption that human excreta are a waste suitable only for disposal, and the conventional technologies are designed to dispose of excreta. These linear approaches fail to recycle nutrients, to prevent pollution or to protect health. Thus, surface and ground water become contaminated and the resulting soil infertility leads to costly measures and pollution. Because conventional approaches are not available to half of humanity, high rates of infectious disease and infant mortality rates continue to exist.

The overall goal of EcoSanRes is to create a global confidence in ecological sanitation as a trustworthy, affordable and sustainable alternative for design of sanitation systems. This requires a new understanding of sanitation, a holistic system based on healthy ecosystems. Residual material is recycled and reused as part of an ecocycle process. External inputs into the system and “wastes” that exit the system are reduced to a minimum or eliminated. Very little water or no water is used. Excreta are processed and rendered safe, close to the point of excretion, pollution is minimized, protecting ground and surface water, and nutrients and carbon are returned to land and made productive, which implies closing the loop. The holistic and ecological approach becomes safe and non-polluting. It can be gender and culturally acceptable; economically feasible; environmentally sustainable; and protecting and preserving the local ecosystem.

Healthy and better-nourished individuals may be an immediate benefit of such systems. It can also provide and generate employment through the provision of services to implement and sustain the systems. These factors contribute toward viable communities, whether urban or rural, and contribute towards the alleviation of poverty. Attaining the vision requires a change in how people think about sanitation and how it is integrated into the rest of society.

SanRes 1993-2002

The Sida-funded SanRes Programme has been managed by WKAB (Uno Winblad) from 1993 to 2001. The aims of the SanRes programme were:
1. to promote the development of affordable and replicable sanitation systems for urban and rural households in the third world,
2. to establish, in selected countries, a local capacity for R&D on sanitation, and
3. to facilitate South-South collaboration in the field of applied sanitation research.

Over the past 9 years the SanRes Programme has supported ecological sanitation projects in El Salvador, Mexico, Bolivia, South Africa, Uganda, Vietnam and China. (Ecological sanitation is defined as 'sanitation systems based on preventing pollution, destroying pathogenic organisms and recycling human excreta'.) A number of international seminars/conferences plus a number of national/local workshops and training courses have been arranged, culminating in the First International Conference on Ecological Sanitation, Nanning, November 2001.

The Programme has so far been involved in relatively small-scale projects in rural areas. The great success in China, particularly in Guangxi Province, indicates that the ecosan concept is ready for urban applications. It is first of all in urban areas that we badly need alternatives to conventional sanitation. All around the world there are fast growing small and medium-sized towns where most households have no access to a hygienic sanitation system. (In China there are 47,000 such towns with a total population more than 200 million.) The municipal economy does not allow heavy investments in pipe networks, pumping stations and treatment plants and many towns are critically short of water. For such towns ecological sanitation systems based upon decentralized management of human excreta and household refuse could be a solution.

EcoSanRes Activities

EcoSanRes has three components:

Outreach Projects

Promotion Activities

• workshops, seminars, conferences

Networking Activities

• EcoSanRes thematic network
• South-South networking
• Discussion Group (a topical forum to exchange expert opinions)
• Please register here to be placed on mailing list
• Dissemination Activities
• Newsletter, publications, fact sheets evolving from the programme

Capacity Building

Training

• Ecosan training courses
• Curriculum Development at Regional Institutions

Methods

• Guidelines on Handling of Urine and Feces
• Guidelines on Agricultural Reuse of Human Excreta
• Implementation and Planning Tool

Studies

• Initial Greywater Assessment
• Review of Alternative Sanitation Systems
• Review of Regulatory Framework
• Study on Norms and Attitudes

Pilot Project

EcoSanRes is carrying out various implementation projects in Asia, Africa, the Middle East and Latin America.

Funds have been allocated strategically in order to catalyse regional activities. The attempt is to develop workable solutions through participatory involvement.

A logical framework has been devised that can be applied to the development of ecosan projects in specific regions. The process of steps for EcoSanRes regional projects range as follows:

Logical Framework

• initial contacts taken to identify targets, possible collaborators and institutional ownership
• organisation of courses, seminars and workshops to consolidate interest, build capacity, transfer expertise and plan activities
• planning and funding development
• pre-feasibility study for regional pilot project
• detailed planning phase
• implementation of pilot project
• monitoring and evaluation

Criteria for Pilot Projects

• optimise dissemination factor
• gender impact
• appropriate knowledge
• political support
• right people
• strong local ownership
• inclusion through reference group
• training – local research
• build on what is already on-going
• Where – rural or urban?
• clear objectives

Norms and Attitudes Towards Ecosan and Other Sanitation Systems

Norms and Attitudes Towards Ecological Sanitation

Ecological sanitation [ecosan] is aimed at closing the nutrient and water cycles in a safe way, while wasting few resources. Nutrients from human excreta are returned to the soil to fertilize crops. A shift towards ecosan needs to take into account the prevailing social contexts and physical environments.

Variations in sanitation and water arrangements

Sanitation arrangements vary in the six periurban settlements that have been assessed in the study*. These six settlements are: Addis Ababa, Ethiopia; Cuernavaca, Mexico;
Kabale, Uganda; Majumba Sita, Tanzania; Manyatta, Kenya; and Stockholm, Sweden.

Characteristics of these arrangements include:

• Access to water – this can vary from indoor tap water to wells and vendors. Most areas face water shortages at least during the dry season or from supply failure.
• Variation in toilet facilities – this can vary from a complete lack of sanitation to full coverage of WCs.
• Wastewater disposal - in most locations wastewater is discharged into nearby ravines or into the ground, and the sewers often leak into the streets. Pit latrines and septic tanks often overflow and/or collapse during the rainy season, causing environmental as well as health problems.
• Reuse of nutrients from human excreta - this can vary from extensive use in situ to no reuse at all.

People’s perception of faeces and urine

Culture, economy, urban/rural population pattern and gender are among the factors influencing how people perceive human excreta and arrangements and devices for managing faeces and urine. Moving to urban centres seems to lead to changes in many views held in rural areas. There is a general view that the odour and appearance of faeces is more repulsive than that of urine. But over time the odour of urine can become worse when the urea in urine converts to noxious ammonia gas. Odour from intestinal gases from others is seen as repulsive, but people tolerate their own odour while actually using a toilet. There seems to be a general societal norm that touching or handling fresh excreta should be avoided. However, babies and sick people in the home need assistance to manage defecation and disposal of fresh excreta. Women are often said to be conditioned to accept this task, and the faeces of babies are considered less offensive than those of adults. This causes unhygienic practices with few or no barriers to the transmission of pathogens, e.g. there appears to be little concern about disposal of the wastewater from washed diapers. Only rarely was it acknowledged that people come into direct contact with their own faeces, and the important issue is how hygiene is maintained.

In most societies it is common to observe the faeces and to a lesser extent the urine to determine a person’s health status; this is even more so for babies. However, at the same time there is an expressed view that faeces should not be seen. This may be linked to folk beliefs that faeces could be used to threaten enemies. However, if the faecal matter is treated by dry storage or composting it then resembles soil or humus, and the avoidance behaviour disappears. People seem to have a more relaxed view on urine, to the extent that it is often used for treatment of minor ailments such as small wounds and as an insecticide to kill banana weevils. In some societies it is recommended to drink small amounts of urine to cure allergic reactions or measles. People perceive cow dung as safe and have little or no reservations to touch it. However, pigs are considered dirty for religious reasons or because of their scavenging habits. Hens and dogs are also scavengers, but only dogs are usually not acceptable as human food.

Norms and Attitudes towards Ecosan and Other Sanitation Systems (contd.)

Changing to Ecological Sanitation

A shift away from installation of conventional solutions such as pit latrines and flush toilets to ecosan may be promoted when there is a lack of water for flushing, or if water-logging or rocky ground makes pits and sewer ditches inappropriate. Also, pits in sandy soils may collapse or pollute the groundwater. Population density affects both how crowded dwellings are, and how much open space there is between houses. Crowding often restricts the kind of sanitation that can be built in a dwelling, while the house plot size determines whether reuse of human-derived nutrient fertilizer is possible.

Socio-cultural reasons for a shift to ecosan include factors such as the need to reduce malodour and limited investment and running costs. Improved health seems to be important only in the event of an epidemic. Dignity and status may also become more important factors as toilet improvement is promoted. The question whether to install an ecosan toilet in or attached to a dwelling remains an open issue. It is well known that the WC has gained popular support by being placed indoors, thus simplifying access and maintenance, and increasing privacy and security, especially for young females. Residents without ecosan experience may worry about possible odour and sanitation engineers may fear that an indoor ecosan toilet may exclude possible future installation of a WC.

Reasons for not adopting an ecosan solution include, apart from the fear of malodour and lack of space, a perception that it is antiquated and not allowed by authorities. It is therefore necessary to manufacture high standard toilets that are appealing and to include ecosan in national sanitation strategies.

Health and design

A shift from conventional pit latrines or flush toilets to ecosan will be more easily accepted if there is little or no odour from the excreta. Covering the faeces with ash or lime effectively reduces the smell, and zero smell can be achieved by ventilation. Transforming the faeces, paper and ash to a hygienic product which looks like soil or humus makes handling acceptable. For advice on treatment methods and reuse in agriculture, see EcoSanRes Fact Sheets 5 and 6.

Gender and age differences

Women seldom urinate in the open. But men are excused when doing so. Defecating in public is never considered acceptable, with the exception of small children. Faeces from babies are often perceived to be free from pathogens and less offensive than those originating from older children or adults. There is some concern about disposing of menstrual blood in the ecosan toilet, and in some communities such a practice poses a challenge for reuse of urine as fertilizer. In households with more than one person, it is usually the task of a woman to clean the bathroom and/or toilet. In the case of urine diversion toilets, the new tasks of emptying the urine container and the faecal bin seem to be that of males. Thus, ecosan-related tasks may not contradict societal norms about the division of duties while ideas about whether or not to recycle nutrients can introduce new values.

Expectations and values

There seems to be a common view that urban sanitation services should be provided by a city council, an NGO or some other organisation. The relationship between residents and politicians is sometimes described as an exchange of votes for favourable services. Poorer sections of society may not be favoured in this way and sanitation designs that are installed and operated by the household can be a tempting alternative for the less influential. Residents are generally prepared to pay a fee for services provided. One of the most valued aspects of a sanitation system is that it should operate securely without failing.