A Better World - Volume 3: Ensure Access to Water and Sanitation for All

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access

water

and

sanitation

for

all

The SuSanA-network – moving to a systems approach

Sunita Narain, director of Centre for Science and Environment,

New Delhi, India, reports that: “The biggest ever sanitation

programme, the Clean India Campaign (Swachh Bharat),

instigated by Indian prime minister Narendra Modi, has

broadened its focus from ODF (open defecation-free) to

ODF++ (including waste water, septage, greywater and faecal

sludge management).”

9,10,11

The mission of the Indian govern-

ment and an engaged community of experts had originally

begun with the slogan “Toilets before Temples,” yet this was

the first step in an extended mission. Now, with ODF++, the

focus has moved beyond the toilet to include various other

elements of the sanitation chain and particularly an approach

to sanitation from a systems perspective.

For many years, sanitation improvement was often focused

on the construction of latrines without considering aspects

of operation, maintenance and services. However, there has

been increasing awareness globally that building latrines

alone and neglecting the entire sanitation service chain does

not improve public health conditions, and could even be a

cause of environmental deterioration.

This increased awareness was one of the main reasons for

creating the Sustainable Sanitation Alliance, just before the

International Year of Sanitation in 2008,

experts having

been concerned that the Year would be oriented towards infra-

structure, thereby potentially worsening the situation. The

alliance was, among other activities, actively involved in the

development of a key publication, spearheaded by the Swiss

Water Research Institute EAWAG, entitled

The Compendium

of Sanitation Systems and Technologies

A crucial ingredient

of the publication was its provision of iconography to depict

sanitation chains and the ways in which elements could be

linked to the chain using a number of exemplary systems.

Sanitation in the circular economy – closing the loop

The global endorsement of the SDGs calls for a radical

re-thinking of the conventional, accepted approaches to urban

infrastructure in general, and to sanitation in particular.

Changing the basic paradigm from linear flow streams and

disposal towards a cycle-oriented management of renewable

resources has the potential to deliver the kind of change,

and the degree of change, that the SDGs demand.

14,15,16,17

Discussions began at the start of the millennium by Swedish

and German organisations as to the importance of non-

renewable resources like phosphorous and nitrogen as well

as efficient use and recycling (see Fig. 3).

While the new thinking is partly in place for implementing

change in solid waste management, energy, and agriculture

(among many sectors spearheading the changes), the paradigm

shift in sanitation is still embryonic. This lag is exposed by the

fact that forward-looking engineers proposed the shift from

linear to circular systems of managing water and wastewater

(including excreta, and rainwater) in the 1970s.

Today, over

40 years later, the circular approach remains the exception.

Some progress has been made, for instance in the under-

standing of urban-rural sanitation value chains, or of sanitation

in the circular economy, hence the idea of using wastewater

and excreta in the safe production of energy, fertiliser or irriga-

tion water is much more broadly accepted in the sector today

than ten years ago. However, as such improvements need cross

and inter-sectoral communication, progress is much slower

than that which is necessary to reach the SDGs holistically.

However, forward-looking projects built on more holis-

tically sustainable sanitation systems do address these

concerns. In the context of German development coop-

eration, such projects receive an additional push from the

German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and

Fig. 3: Comparison of linear- and reuse-oriented approaches to sanitation

Source: adapted from reference 15: Lange, J., & Otterpohl, R. (1996). Abwasser-Handbuch zu einer zukunftsfähigen Wasserwirtschaft

Iconography used to describe closed loop systems by Lange et al. 1996. It compares a linear to a reuse oriented approach to sanitation

Swimming

prohibited

Swimming

allowed

Reduction of

transport energy

C-sink counteracts

global warming

Low water

consumption

Biowaste

Biogas plant

Profit from energy

Improvement of

the humus layer

Food

Infiltration

Food

Fertiliser factory

Fossil phosphate

and potassium

Max. 30% of

nutrients

High water

consumption

Biowaste

Incineration

Landfill

Excess sludge

Energy for

C-degradation

Nitrogen from air

High energy

demand for

nitrification

Soil

Greywater treatment

Accumulation

P < 1%

N < 1%

Less carbon

P > 5%

N < 20%

Potassium

Carbon

+CO

C, P, N, K