Pro-poor sanitation technologies - A technical overview paper.

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It is estimated that at least two billion people have inadequate sanitation. The current situation in water and sanitation services for millions of peri-urban residents is starkly anti-poor and represents a major challenge for the 21st century. By virtue of its cost and water requirements, we would argue that conventional sewerage is an implicitly anti-poor technology. This paper summarises low-cost sanitation technologies that have been developed by engineers from around the world, and seeks to provide evidence that there is such a thing as a pro-poor technology. We argue that simplified sewerage is often the only sanitation technology that is technically feasible and economically appropriate for low income, high-density urban areas. Simplified sewerage will only truly be a pro-poor technology if issues such as lack of investment in sanitation, insufficient cost recovery for sanitation services, conservative technical standards favoured over innovation, low-cost technologies perceived as second class provision, the nature of peri-urban settlements, and lack of engagement with users, are addressed. So often, peri-urban sanitation schemes fail to exist, fail to be sustainable, or fail to be pro-poor. The challenge is for engineers, social scientists and other professionals to work together to make pro-poor sanitation a reality and interdisciplinarity the norm.

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0016718506001333

3 Answers

  1. French English Désolé mais votre statistique est archi fausse: C'est plus de 7 millards d'individus, la totalité planétaire, qui est dans la configuration d'un assainissement qui ne fonctionne pas. Pourquoi ? Non pas qu'il ne fonctionne pas dans le sens du terme , mais simplement parce que sa seule fonction se limite à faire transiter les excréments du lieu de la défécation vers le lieu de leur stockage sans qu'apparaisse nulle part un moindre soupcon de traitement. Nous ne sommes pas dans une configuration de traitement, mais dans une configuration de simple gestion. C'est pour cette raison que la population terrestre produit à ce jour plus de 45 millions de tonnes d'excréments que le système fort couteux financièrement, favorise pour une transformation en boue d'excréments. Il faut savoir que la boue est un poison pour l'environnement car sa destruction se décline en temps/année en émettant du méthane dans l'atmosphère sous l'action d'une forte putréfaction qui vient s'ajouter à la pollution active de nos sociétés. L'esprit à ce jour pour les toilettes n'est pas dans le traitement efficace des excréments mais uniquement sur l'infrastructure technique de la défécation: un lieu d'aisance et un réservoir de stockage. Après ce qu'il en devient des excréments, on s'en moque, comme si ils allaient disparaitre tout seul. Le même état d'esprit que la défécation à l'air libre. Je vous invite à lire le document de l'USAID : managing_feces_in_challenging_urban_landscapes. il résume très bien mes propos. English Sorry but your arch statistic is false: It's more than 7 billions of people, the entire planet, which is in the configuration of a consolidation that is not working. Why? Not that he does not work in the sense of the term, but simply because its sole function is limited to transit from the place of excrement defecation to the place of storage without the appearance nowhere less suspicion treatment . We are not in a processing configuration, but in a simple configuration management. It is for this reason that earth's population to date produced over 45 million tons of excrement that strong financially expensive system favors for processing into mud with excrement. You should know that mud is a poison for the environment because its destruction comes in time / year in emitting methane into the atmosphere under the action of strong decay that adds to the pollution of our active companies. The mind so far to the toilet is not in the effective treatment of excrement but only on the technical infrastructure of defecation: a place of ease and a storage tank. After it becomes excrement, we do not care, as if they were going to disappear by itself. The same mindset that defecation in the open. I invite you to read the USAID document: managing_feces_in_challenging_urban_landscapes. it summarizes very well what I said.

  3. Continuing your share, some New Sanitation Technologies for Communities with Poor Soil developed by Wateraid. They are also very innovative and sustainable and cheap. they did a of pilot projects in Benue and Bauchi States in Nigeriahave led to the construction of improved pit latrines that substantially reduce the risk of collapse due to poor soil conditions and shallow groundwater. I will share some document soon with the team.