Contested Factors for Sustainability: Construction and Management of Household On-Site Wastewater Treatment Systems

Abstract

AbstractOn-site sanitation systems experience a high failure rate with resulting environmental and public health implications. In the United States alone, the EPA estimates that 10% of the 26 million homes served by on-site systems have failed. If this failure rate is extrapolated to the 8% of the global population that the UN estimates have gained access to sanitation between 1990 and 2008, an additional 5 million failed systems have been constructed. To address issues like this, development theory currently emphasizes a blend of hardware (e.g., infrastructure, technology) and software (e.g., knowledge, institutions, education) in an effort to achieve sustainable development. However, there is a lack of both theory that addresses this interaction and a definition of sustainable infrastructure. To begin to address this gap, an initial set of 40 factors that may contribute to sustainable on-site sanitation systems was identified from a literature review including the Web of Science, the Engineering Village...