Sustainable Sanitation Research Articles

Analysis on the management of waste domestic system in populous neighborhoods

Population growth increases the disposal of domestic wastewater generated by the community. Residents who live in neighborhoods and slums have become one of the factors of domestic wastewater issues. These communities urinate and defecate in inappropriate locations without any post-processing, including simple processing through septic tanks. These issues can be resolved by improving the domestic wastewater management. The centralized domestic wastewater management system is one of the solutions for the management of alternative settlements and slums in RT 09, Bidara Cina. This research aims at planning domestic waste management model that fits into the community. This research will use descriptive analysis methods with quantitative approach. Data are obtained through field surveys and resident interviews. The data then are presented in a table. My contribution will provide a suitable model for domestic wastewater management planning. The findings of this study refer to six (6) SDGs, namely clean water and sanitation to ensure domestic wastewater management and sustainable sanitation.

Unapređenje nadzora nad vodosnabdevanjem, sanitacijom i higijenom u zdravstvenim ustanovama

Providing safe drinking water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) in health care facilities has a central place in achieving universal and equal access to WASH for all. Well-organized supply of safe drinking water, sanitation and hygiene in health institutions is essential for patient health, quality of care, prevention and control of infections, suppression of antimicrobial resistance and improvement of ecological sustainability of the health system. Improving and maintaining WASH in healthcare institutions is a cornerstone in achieving SDGs, in particular SDG 6: Securing accessibility and sustainable water management and sanitation for all and SDG 3: Providing healthy living and promoting prosperity for all in all ages.

Universitas Padjadjaran concern for sustainable water resource from West Java to national and to the world

The implementation of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) which have been set according to the Peraturan Presiden No. 59 tahun 2017 about The Implementation of SDGs to achieve the purpose of SDGs in Indonesia. Through the implementation of universal, integrated, and inclusive principles of 2030 Agenda for SDGs, a new dawn of development that changes the direction of itself, that enveloping human rights and equality in social, economy, and environment, could be accomplished. UNPAD understand, as a seat of learning and to give real contribution, both in the community and national development, by adopting transformative education paradigm, which seek more activities in university level for better community through the idea of sustainability and sustainable development, and its written as Principle Scientific Pattern of Universitas Padjadjaran: bina mulia hukum dan lingkungan hidup dalam pembangunan nasional. Our research was started to perform through multi and transdiscipline-based with all stakeholder involved such as local government, industry side and community. The study areas were focused on most West Java and Banten where region related with industry. Researches were divided into 4 stages, start from study until monitoring stage. As appreciation, Universitas Padjadjaran reached Indonesia Green Award (2013, 2014) and Green World Awards (2017). What’s Unpad researcher has done is a step in engagement to ensure the availability and management of sustainable water and sanitation in accordance once of SDGs in the environmental sector life.

Addressing Sustainability of Sanitation Systems

Recently, a technical draft of the international standard ISO/DIS 30500 for non-sewered sanitation systems has been developed (publication expected for 2018). Its innovative feature is the inclusion of sustainable aspects. This article discusses the motivation behind this standard and explores to what extent sustainability can be standardized. This research was based on the development of a concept-standard for sustainable sanitation and on surveys of experts working in sanitation and standardization.

Assessing the National Sanitation Policy in Rwanda

Populated cities in Rwanda rely on decentralized wastewater management systems due to the absence of central sewerage systems and the limited finances for sanitation infrastructures. This paper studied the influence of the national sanitation policy and the best available technologies in addressing and reinforcing decentralized wastewater treatment practices in Kigali city such as on-site and off-site sanitation systems. Different sanitation and wastewater management related policies were reviewed with emphasis on densely populated cities. The paper highlighted the need for a sustainable sanitation policy focusing on the safe disposal of the wastewaters and the proper connection to protect the ecosystem and to improve the status of the sanitation services in Rwanda. It was also noted that policies cannot be implemented without a real intervention of the local authorities in monitoring, advising and putting practical guidelines for individuals and communities before and after constructing their treatment systems.

Towards sustainable urban sanitation: a capacity-building approach to wastewater mapping for small towns in India

AbstractDecentralized technologies and city-based governance are being actively promoted for urban sanitation in low-income countries. At the same time, municipal agencies in developing countries have little technical or financial capacity for sanitation planning. This paper develops an approach to sanitation planning that leverages citizen engagement and fosters local capacities. It presents an empirical study from two small towns in India, where collaborations among the research team, local academics and students, and the municipal government, produced planning-oriented sanitary maps of each town. The maps were built upon a social and spatial understanding of the diverse sanitation practices that already exist, coupled with Google Earth and free GIS software. The ‘waste watersheds’ and ‘sanitation zones’ identified through the mapping process provide a basis on which sanitation interventions can be assessed and weighed, so that sustainable solutions can be prioritized. The paper identifies three features for system interventions: first, making local municipal government the locus of sanitation interventions; second, engaging community-based organizations and academic institutions to develop local capacity; and finally, recognizing the fragmented nature of cities by developing a socio-spatial approach to sanitation zoning.

Culturally appropriate organization of water and sewerage projects built through public private partnerships.

This paper contributes to the pursuit of socially sustainable water and sanitation infrastructure for all people by discovering statistically robust relationships between Hofstede’s dimensions of cross-cultural comparison and the choice of contract award types, project type, and primary revenue sources. This analysis, which represents 973 projects distributed across 24 low- and middle-income nations, uses a World Bank dataset describing high capital cost water and sewerage projects funded through private investment. The results show that cultural dimensions explain variation in the choice of contract award types, project type, and primary revenue sources. These results provide empirical evidence that strategies for water and sewerage project organization are not culturally neutral. The data show, for example, that highly individualistic contexts are more likely to select competitive contract award types and to depend on user fees to provide the primary project revenue stream post-construction. By selecting more locally appropriate ways to organize projects, project stakeholders will be better able to pursue the construction of socially sustainable water and sewerage infrastructure.

‘One David, Two Goliaths’: Microcredit as a tool for sustainable ecological sanitation and smallholder agriculture in Ghana

This paper examines microcredit as a tool for ecological sanitation (EcoSan) and smallholder agriculture in Ghana. Employing a rapid review approach, and its associated review of existing literature, the paper argues that microcredit for sanitation has been proven to be an effective way (“David”) of dealing with sanitation and agriculture challenges (two “Goliaths”), when directed to the provision of ecological sanitation (compost toilets). Such approach has multiple benefits such as improved sanitation, clean environment, improved crop yield, food security, good health and poverty alleviation. Thus, ecological sanitation is both an economically and environmentally sustainable sanitation option since it has the added benefits of paying for itself through the fertilizer generated as its by-product, thereby improving food security and alleviating poverty as well as protecting the environment in the long run. The paper therefore implores microcredit institutions to engage in diversified lending approach, which seeks to target smallholder agricultural development through ecological sanitation provision. Though attitudes and perceptions have been identified as a major challenge for the acceptance of EcoSan toilets, it is argued that beliefs can be altered or replaced through better community engagement and open discussions about the benefits of EcoSan toilets as well as the relevance of using microcredit as a tool to motivate this change process.

WASH and gender in health care facilities: The uncharted territory

ABSTRACTHealth care facilities in low- and middle-income countries are high-risk settings, and face special challenges to achieving sustainable water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) services. Our applied interdisciplinary research conducted in India and Uganda analyzed six dimensions of WASH services in selected health care facilities, including menstrual hygiene management.To be effective, WASH monitoring strategies in health care facilities must include gender sensitive measures. We present a novel strategy, showing that applied gender sensitive multitool assessments are highly productive in assessments of WASH services and facilities from user and provider perspectives. We discuss its potential for applications at scale and as an area of future research.

Innovative sanitation approaches could address multiple development challenges.

Globally, more than 60% of the human population live without safely managed sanitation services or even lack access to basic sanitation facilities. In addition, most of the wastewater produced in the world is discharged without proper treatment. Integrated approaches are needed to address these issues and curb the resulting adverse impacts on public health and the environment, and associated societal economic losses. The United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development provides an important framework towards more sustainable sanitation development, in terms of both safe sanitation access and wastewater management. Innovative solutions that treat and enable productive safe use of water, and facilitate recovery of nutrients and organic matter from waste resources are booming. Some examples of trends are decentralized solutions, separation of waste flows, low-or no-flushing toilets, and converting faecal sludge to energy. These alternative technologies show huge potential to address many development challenges, contributing to multiple sustainable development goals but achieving upscaling has proved to be a major challenge. A paradigm shift to 'treatment for reuse' instead of 'treatment for disposal' is already taking place in the wastewater sector. Nevertheless, a better understanding of driving forces and enabling environments, new organizational models based on more service-oriented sanitation provision, and highlighting potential multiple societal benefits to attract investments from new sectors are identified areas that need further attention.

Sanitation and the commons: The role of collective action in sanitation use

A lack of safe sanitation threatens human wellbeing and has overlooked implications for environmental sustainability. There is a growing need to understand community-level drivers of sanitation use, as poor sanitation in a few households can create risks for neighboring households and contaminate the surrounding environment. This paper considers sanitation in the context of common-pool resources, focusing on processes of collective action and sustainable sanitation use, and draws on a case study conducted in Koassanga, Plateau-Central, Burkina Faso, where an ecological sanitation system intervention was implemented. Using a qualitative study design, 26 semi-structured interviews were conducted with residents using a social capital framework for water, sanitation and hygiene. Data were thematically analyzed to understand how collective action played a role in sustaining use of the sanitation system. The case study findings indicated that social capital characterized by membership in local groups and associations may have contributed to successful implementation of the intervention and ending open defecation, through normalization and monitoring of the use of ecological sanitation systems. In addition, community leaders played prominent roles in ensuring that collective management of the sanitation systems was sustained. These findings highlight potential for further examination of sanitation systems from a common pool resources perspective to identify other factors that contribute to long-term sustainability. With growing interest in community-led sanitation approaches, this understanding can inform more effective strategies for governments and NGOs to promote the health of entire communities to achieve SDG targets for universal coverage.

English

Urbanization is a global phenomenon with more pronounced consequences on waste management in developing countries. The rate of infrastructure development is mostly outpaced by the rate of waste generation. Bahir Dar city, as a rapidly urbanizing city in the southern part of Lake Tana, is not an exception. On top of production of more wastes, the waste management practice is challenged by low prioritization of waste management, limited revenues for financing waste management with the ever-increasing population of this city. This paper reviewed the current waste management system in Lake Tana basin taking Bahir Dar as case. The mechanism of Bahir Dar municipality to coordinate the public and private sectors in the city has played a vital role in waste management. However, the daily monitoring of waste management by the community development section has not been sufficient. It is also observed that the liquid waste has an effect on the lake and its resources. Effective involvement of both private and public sectors should improve waste management and provide door-to-door collection and facilitate drainage disposable canals. Therefore, an integrated solid and liquid waste management practice should be implemented for the City Lake Tana basin and also for the surrounding environment. This has to include development plans for improving sustainable sanitation and disposal of the sewage system, and adopt the best practices of waste management for the City-Lake Tana basin ecosystem.   Key words: Development plan, finance, municipality, urbanization, wastes.

NGOs fostering transitions towards sustainable urban sanitation in low-income countries: Insights from Transition Management and Development Studies

Globally, 756 million people in urban areas have no access to improved sanitation, while the urban population is increasing rapidly. Providing toilets has often not been a sustainable solution because of failure to link them to the necessary service infrastructure. Resolving urban sanitation problems in low-income countries requires innovations in approaches covering infrastructure, technology, social embedding, financial mechanisms and cost recovery. This paper explores the potential challenges and contribution of NGOs in facilitating new, integrated solutions to urban sanitation problems that address the entire sanitation chain, promising better social, financial and environmental sustainability. A case study of a sanitation project initiated by a large Dutch NGO is presented, using reconstruction of project documentation and interviews with project stakeholders. The analytical framework combines elements from Transition Management (TM) with insights from process approaches to development projects and community development. The choice of the TM concept is motivated by the notion that the new NGO approaches could be conceived as efforts to initiate a sustainability transition process in urban sanitation, whereas its complementation with insights from the development studies domain answers to the need to attune a TM-based framework to participation in the socio-institutional context in low-income countries, to understand the progress of governing transition processes in informal, low-income settings. This context requires special attention for capacity-building and creation of organizational structures in poor local communities. The case study shows that this entailed specialised groundwork, with which the NGO laid a crucial foundation that enabled transition frontrunners to act. Simultaneously, this focus on bottom-up empowerment created challenges for the NGO in effectively involving the right frontrunner actors who could put pressure on incumbent societal structures and institutions. We conclude that transitions in low-income contexts require extra attention to local empowerment and institution building to lay the required foundations for a locally rooted transition process. Development NGOs like the one in our case study have the skills to do this, but need to learn how to combine these with additional necessary competences to facilitate systemic change.

Facilitating communities of practice as social learning systems: a case study of trialling sustainable sanitation at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS)

While social learning is advocated as critical for inducing large-scale shifts toward sustainability, methodological issues associated with designing the opportunities for social learning or guidelines for practitioners seeking to facilitate such learning in cross-disciplinary teams working on sustainability-oriented projects are lacking. This paper draws on a two-year pilot project in Sydney, in which government, industry and academic partners collaborated to learn about the development potential of urine diversion (UD) systems in practice. The concept of ‘Communities of Practice’ was used to identify inherent challenges and opportunities for social learning. An outcome of the project has been the identification of overarching principles for designing opportunities for social learning in such projects, particularly the need (1) to facilitate community-oriented leadership, (2) to develop strategic exercises for collaborative engagement and (3) involvement of actors beyond the boundaries of the experiment to introduce novelty, diversity and cumulative learning opportunities.

Using role-playing games to broaden engineering education

PurposeIn today’s complex society, there is an increasing demand to include a wider set of skills in engineering curricula, especially skills related to policy, society and sustainable development. Role-playing and gaming are active learning tools, which are useful for learning relationships between technology and society, problem solving in complex situations and communication. However, use of these learning methods in higher education, and in engineering particularly, is limited. The purpose of this study was to test the effectiveness of a role-playing game for learning about complexities related to sustainable water and sanitation management within a civil engineering curriculum.Design/methodology/approachThe game has been used during three consecutive years in a Masters’ level course. Surveys and course evaluations were used to evaluate the effectiveness of this method from both teacher and student perspectives.FindingsThe results show that students gained knowledge on complex subjects, and both teachers and students had positive experiences. Better integration of the game within the rest of the course could strengthen its effectiveness.Originality/valueThe experiences gained from this study should assist others in the development and use of such active learning techniques in higher education.

Sustainability of community-led total sanitation outcomes: Evidence from Ethiopia and Ghana.

We conducted a study to evaluate the sustainability of community-led total sanitation (CLTS) outcomes in Ethiopia and Ghana. Plan International, with local actors, implemented four CLTS interventions from 2012 to 2014: health extension worker-facilitated CLTS and teacher-facilitated CLTS in Ethiopia, and NGO-facilitated CLTS with and without training for natural leaders in Ghana. We previously evaluated these interventions using survey data collected immediately after implementation ended, and concluded that in Ethiopia health extension workers were more effective facilitators than teachers, and that in Ghana training natural leaders improved CLTS outcomes. For this study, we resurveyed 3831 households one year after implementation ended, and analyzed latrine use and quality to assess post-intervention changes in sanitation outcomes, to determine if our original conclusions were robust. In one of four interventions evaluated (health extension worker-facilitated CLTS in Ethiopia), there was an 8 percentage point increase in open defecation in the year after implementation ended, challenging our prior conclusion on their effectiveness. For the other three interventions, the initial decreases in open defecation of 8–24 percentage points were sustained, with no significant changes occurring in the year after implementation. On average, latrines in Ethiopia were lower quality than those in Ghana. In the year following implementation, forty-five percent of households in Ethiopia repaired or rebuilt latrines that had become unusable, while only 6% did in Ghana possibly due to higher latrine quality. Across all four interventions and three survey rounds, most latrines remained unimproved. Regardless of the intervention, households in villages higher latrine use were more likely to have sustained latrine use, which together with the high latrine repair rates indicates a potential social norm. There are few studies that revisit villages after an initial evaluation to assess sustainability of sanitation outcomes. This study provides new evidence that CLTS outcomes can be sustained in the presence of training provided to local actors, and strengthens previous recommendations that CLTS is not appropriate in all settings and should be combined with efforts to address barriers households face to building higher quality latrines.

Carbon footprint of urban source separation for nutrient recovery

Source separation systems for the management of domestic wastewater and food waste has been suggested as more sustainable sanitation systems for urban areas. The present study used an attributional life cycle assessment to investigate the carbon footprint and potential for nutrient recovery of two sanitation systems for a hypothetical urban area in Southern Sweden. The systems represented a typical Swedish conventional system and a possible source separation system with increased nutrient recovery. The assessment included the management chain from household collection, transport, treatment and final return of nutrients to agriculture or disposal of the residuals. The results for carbon footprint and nutrient recovery (phosphorus and nitrogen) concluded that the source separation system could increase nutrient recovery (0.30–0.38 kg P capita−1 year−1 and 3.10–3.28 kg N capita−1 year−1), while decreasing the carbon footprint (−24 to −58 kg CO2-eq. capita−1 year−1), compared to the conventional system. The nutrient recovery was increased by the use of struvite precipitation and ammonium stripping at the wastewater treatment plant. The carbon footprint decreased, mainly due to the increased biogas production, increased replacement of mineral fertilizer in agriculture and less emissions of nitrous oxide from wastewater treatment. In conclusion, the study showed that source separation systems could potentially be used to increase nutrient recovery from urban areas, while decreasing the climate impact.

Towards sustainable sanitation management: Establishing the costs and willingness to pay for emptying and transporting sludge in rural districts with high rates of access to latrines.

MotivationProper management of fecal sludge has significant positive health and environmental externalities. Most research on managing onsite sanitation so far either simulates the costs of, or the welfare effects from, managing sludge in situ in pit latrines. Thus, designing management strategies for onsite rural sanitation is challenging, because the actual costs of transporting sludge for treatment, and sources for financing these transport costs, are not well understood.MethodsIn this paper we calculate the actual cost of sludge management from onsite latrines, and identify the contributions that latrine owners are willing to make to finance the costs. A spreadsheet-based model is used to identify a cost-effective transport option, and to calculate the cost per household. Then a double-bound contingent valuation method is used to elicit from pit-latrine owners their willingness-to-pay to have sludge transported away. This methodology is employed for the case of a rural subdistrict in Bangladesh called Bhaluka, a unit of administration at which sludge management services are being piloted by the Government of Bangladesh.ResultsThe typical sludge accumulation rate in Bhaluka is calculated at 0.11 liters/person/day and a typical latrine will need to be emptied approximately once every 3 to 4 years. The costs of emptying and transport are high; approximately USD 13 per emptying event (circa 14% of average monthly income); household contributions could cover around 47% of this cost. However, if costs were spread over time, the service would cost USD 4 per year per household, or USD 0.31 per month per household—comparable to current expenditures of rural households on telecommunications.ConclusionThis is one of few research papers that brings the costs of waste management together with financing of that cost, to provide evidence for an implementable solution. This framework can be used to identify cost effective sludge management options and private contributions towards that cost in other (context-specific) administrative areas where onsite sanitation is widespread.

Water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) in schools: results from a process evaluation of the National Sanitation Campaign in Tanzania

This study assesses the intermediate outcomes of the Tanzania National Sanitation Campaign (NSC) for schools. A cross-sectional study was designed as part of a process evaluation of the NSC in Tanzania on 70 primary schools and 54 regional and district education officers. Data was collected between August and December 2014 using questionaires, key informant interviews, and desk studies. The results showed that only 50% of schools met the Tanzania guideline of 50 boys per drop hole, while 43% met the guideline of 40 girls per drop hole. In addition, 53% of schools had a reliable water supply, 43% had some functional handwashing stations, but only 29% and 19% had water and soap available at the stations, respectively. Overall, the implementation of the NSC in schools was found to be effective, though poor planning and coordination, inadequate funding, and low technical capacity were identified as barriers to achieve the intended objectives. The study recommends stronger and coordinated stakeholder partnerships with clearly defined roles including cost sharing. Government and other stakeholders should also consider the impact of increasing funding for both software and hardware components to improve the enabling environment, and to develop a standardised monitoring mechanism for sustainable school water, sanitation and hygiene.

Towards sustained sanitation services: a review of existing frameworks and an alternative framework combining ecological and sanitation life stage approaches

Despite increased promotion, sanitation programmes have varying degrees of success partly because of limited consideration of the wider context beyond individual factors in programme design. Although a recent model, Integrated Behaviour Model for Water Sanitation and Hygiene (IBM-WASH) comprehensively addresses this gap, the model focuses on the initial adoption factors and lacks emphasis on the functioning of the entire sanitation system from toilet usage to the safe disposal of the waste. Hence application of the model is limited, to some degree, in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals for sanitation which have broadened the scope for sustainable sanitation service. Based on a review of available frameworks, this paper proposes an alternative comprehensive framework using an ecological public health approach to health determinants but does so through application across the spectrum of sanitation stages. A systematic literature review on sanitation adoption factors and comparative analysis of the proposed framework and the IBM-WASH framework was conducted to analyse the benefits of the framework. The findings show that different factors operate differently for each sanitation service stage, requiring a different set of actions for each stage. Our alternative framework can better address factors across sanitation stages and encourage collaboration among stakeholders with different disciplinary backgrounds.