Championing Ecological Sanitation

Fountain of Development Research and Action (FODRA)
Delhi, India
Definition on ecological sanitation
There is no strict definition for ecological sanitation. In principle "ecological sanitation" should have something to do with managing human excreta and/or urine at minimum risk to human and environmental health. It may or may not reuse or recycle human resources and it may or may not be connected to agricultural systems so that the technologies can vary.
Challenges in ecological sanitation?
Ecological sanitation has been in the process of graduation as successful and environmentally sustainable alternative globally, largely in rural areas, where sanitation coverage is often lacking. At the same time, it is often considered suitable for cities, but experience in urban areas has lot of limitation and the concept of reuse may seem inapplicable from practical point of view. Mostly ecological sanitation is translated in its narrowest sense of viewing it as an alternative toilet, one that can dispose of excreta in novel ways. This is unfortunate, and a continuation of this view may lead to the failure of this initiative, perhaps ultimately to its demise. This itself is a great challenge.
Even if ecological sanitation is considered as an alternative toilet system, the main challenge for promoting ecological sanitation on a wide scale need lot of investment to create logistics. Although appropriate technology and the mechanisms on ecological sanitation has already been in place, but making the system and approach operational would require a great restructuring of the waste disposal infrastructure – mainly in urban context. Further, the individual conventional toilets would have to be replaced by urine diversion toilets in the long-run, which would separate the liquid and solid wastes from each other.

• governance/policy issues
  

  
  None inclusion of ecological sanitation alternatives as options in the national sanitation guidelines. Existing ones favour conventional and centralised sanitary systems.
  

  • Lack of proper enforcement of law in relation to quality/type of conventional toilet management to address the water source pollution in addition to grey-water and black-water in the urban locations not covered under water-borne sewage network
    

• institutional issues
  
• Lack of /mismatch of existing infrastructure and logistic to support and promote ecological sanitation to scale and for wider implementation in urban situations- where space is scarce and population density is too high.
  
• Lack of Knowledge about the concept of ecological sanitation among engineers, decision makers and stakeholders.
  
• financial issues
  
• Promoting ecological sanitation on a wide scale need lot of investment to create logistics for proper recycling waste as fertiliser
  
• To see wider impact and accessibility of toilets based on ecological sanitation principle, the conventional toilets needs to be replaced with urine diversion toilet units which needs lot of investment
  
• social issues
  
• Cultural taboos, traditional habits and attitudes hinder in choosing ecological sanitation alternatives as a suitable option and similarly the use of excreta-based fertilisers.
  

Urban Relevance ecological sanitation - a case of Delhi squatter settlements?

The settlement low-income clusters in north-east district in Delhi are not connected to a drinking water supply. These people get their drinking water mostly from shallow private wells. Mainly nitrates, faecal bacteria and pesticides however often pollute groundwater. 95 % of the households have a pit latrine in their houses built in a 25 square yards space, which is mostly unsealed and never emptied While the contamination caused by the faecal bacteria and the nitrates is a result of the traditional and widespread use of over-flowing pit-latrines, which infiltrate their liquid contents into the sub-soil, have a bad smell and are built very close to household tubewells, resulting in health problems as a result of using and consuming the polluted drinking water.

The high density of conventional latrines in small house has been identified as one of the sources of groundwater pollution. The families would also not be able to pay for the operation and maintenance of a central water or sewage system if one would be installed. The continuation of the use of decentralised solutions was therefore seen as being the most appropriate approach in the area. In public meetings the citizens were informed about the disadvantages of latrines and the advantages of urine diverting toilets.

Since the households are too small to establish decentralised sanitation facilities with urine diversion and onsite composting features in addition to critical problems such as involvement of high cost burden on families to replace their toilets with ecological sanitation toilets, a pilot was initiated in a private primary school in the focus area with approx. 450 pupils (aged 6-10 years) and 8 teachers.

The project amongst other goals provide an affordable option to upgrade school urinal unit and thereby sanitation through diversion of urine and collection for recycling in agriculture. So that it could serve as an example of how to improve school sanitary conditions and recycling of urine In addition the population should become aware of the advantages of urine diverting toilets regarding ground water protection and gain of excellent fertilizer.

Simultaneously, to demonstrate ecological sanitation with urine division and on-site composting features and their use as fertiliser, a three toilet unit block has been constructed in a village outskirt inhabited by dalits - scavenging community. The ultimate purpose of the extension of the pilot was initially to demonstrate ecosan toilets and improve sanitation in the surrounding area by reducing open defecation. Because, 90 % dalit scavenging population have no access to toilet. Although the pilot extension was established after several rounds of meetings, discussions and planning exercises on ecological sanitation among the end-user groups – the village farmers and the potential toilet users, the acceptation by people to this new type of toilet was very slow due to their hard to die habits and cultural resistance. Gradually, people started using the toilets and the urine collected both from school and toilet unit has been used as fertilser in the agricultural demonstration field on vegetables and varieties of crops. The growth of plant where urine and human faeces compost has attracted many practicing farmers nearby towards use of urine in place of chemical fertiliser- urea and human faeces compost as best soil conditioner.

This successful experiment has encouraged to plan for a up-scaled urine diversion urinal unit in the school and incorporation of environmental sanitation education curriculum in the school education system. Similarly more and more quarries are continuously come from villagers on having an ecosan toilet as an alternate. Although financing of such a initiative has been a challenge, the beginning has been very successful – a long way to go for a wider demonstration and promotion of ecological sanitation.

Ecological sanitation and the future?

Much of our living today depends on linear thinking and linear flows of resources. Ecological sanitation represents an alternative to this way of living by being a closed-loop approach to the management of human excreta. Ecological sanitation is an ecosystems approach to resource management. External inputs into the system, like water, and wastes that exit the system, like nutrients, are reduced to a minimum or eliminated. The need for artificial fertiliser for food production, for example, can be reduced or eliminated, and the connection of sewage with industrial wastes can be eliminated.
Ecological sanitation is, thus, more than a toilet to keep excreta away from people. It is an attempt to solve some of society's most intractable problems – infectious disease, environmental degradation, water scarcity and the need to recover and recycle nutrients for plant growth. In so doing, it also helps to restore soil fertility, conserve fresh water and protect marine environments – all of which contribute toward food security.

It is, therefore, not a question of whether or not ecological sanitation will be adopted in urban areas; rather it is a question of when it will be adopted if resources are to be managed for a sustainable future. The important question is what challenges will have to be overcome to expand ecological sanitation into urban areas. A brief analysis of the urban trends, as they relate to ecological sanitation, will aid a dialogue relating to the number and type of bridges that have to be built to move this issue forward.

Success of ecological sanitation – urine diverting toilets?

The promotion of ecological sanitation is still in its inception of trying with pilots to create enabling environment for wider scaling-up with no extra cost in relation to conventional water-borne system. Hence it has been successful so far, because the urine diverting ecological toilet separates and sanitizes human excreta, producing a useful soil improver and preventing contamination of ground water. It has proved to be particularly popular in water-scarce and in waterlogged areas. The planning of resettlement areas in urban districts offers a very good
chance to implement ecosan technologies on a big scale and therefore avoid problems which arise on the small scale. Management and storage options as well as reuse of the material can be organized in an easier way on a large scale than a small scale.

Barriers to ecological sanitation – urine diverting toilets ?

Ecological sanitation is based on an ecosystem approach, and not a specific technology, it offers a conceptual shift in the relationship between people and the environment. Ecological sanitation is holistic: it saves water, prevents water pollution, and sanitizes and recycles nutrients and organics to restore soil and soil fertility. Besides providing a basic service, it can contribute to improved health and food security. It is a well established system which works extremely well. However, for many developing countries where millions of people do not have access to the most basic form of pit sanitation, the promotion of toilets based on ecological sanitation is costly compared to simpler forms of pit sanitation because it requires quite strict management procedures to be successful.
Further, the ecological sanitation cannot be scaled up unless it is socially and culturally acceptable. The needs and priorities of the people themselves must always be in focus in all water and sanitation interventions. The users should play a leading role in putting their ideas into practice. Involving households and communities in planning, implementing and maintaining services and the use of suitable technology is most important for achieving success, as are long-term ecological and financial sustainability.