Sustainable Sanitation for the
21st Century
A Sourcebook and a set of powerpoints
support material for training of professionals
in the sanitation and water sector
Long-term sanitation challenges
• The urban population will double in the next 50 years
• Foreseen scarcity of water, energy, and nutrients
• Chemical society, emissions and global warming
• Manpower/capacity constraints
Learn from past experiences!
Jan-Olof Drangert, Linköping University, Sweden
Objectives of the learning material
• To provide a cost-effective, up-to-date set of
pedagogical slides with commentaries
• To serve as capacity building material
• To improve the quality of instruction
• To encourage students/participants to learn
more about different aspects of sanitation
• To challenge learners to think ‘out-of-the-box’
Jan-Olof Drangert, Linköping University, Sweden
Content and relevance
- a brief presentation
• Sustainable sanitation - a review
• Sanitation management today and
in future
• Sanitation and public
health
• Sanitation and the
environment
• Applications
Jan-Olof Drangert, Linköping University, Sweden
Guide to the user – the design of the material
Sustainable sanitation and food security have been issues in
all human history - although named differently. This example
describes the evolution of sanitation arrangements in the
Swedish town of Linköping for the period 1870 to 2000. The
flow of nutrients from food consumption is estimated for each
period and the output is divided into gainful use in agriculture
and energy production and losses to the hydrosphere and
landfills. The rate of gainful use varies dramatically due to
changes in sanitation arrangements and food intake. By
1950, almost all inhabitants had access to a WC connected
to the sewerage. However, the wastewater from households
was not treated chemically or biologically before discharged
to river Stångån. Drainage pipes emptied untreated
wastewater and stormwater in the river at several points.
Only by the 1950s was most sewage collected and treated in
a mechanical process, and extended in the 1970s to remove
phosphorus before discharge at the river mouth into Lake
Roxen (Drangert and Löwgren 2005). Use of nutrient is
again improving with the introduction of a phosphorus
removal unit at the WWTP and use of sludge in agriculture
from the 1970s onwards.
New urban infrastructure is required to recover nutrients
from household sanitation systems and organic waste
directly at the source (Drangert 1998) and new technologies
to treat sludge. Urine-diverting toilets that keep urine and
composted faecal matter separate help simplify treatment
and safe use in agriculture after some storage (WHO 2006).
…..
Jan-Olof Drangert, Linköping University, Sweden
Guide to the user - methods
The green planet
Our planet is huge but has limited resources. Seen from space we can
identify cultivated fertile areas as well as uninhabitable areas with
sparse population. About half of the world's population live near to seas,
lakes and rivers.
Had you seen the globe two hundred years ago, it would have looked
very different. At that time the world population was 1 billion people, and
today we are 6 billion. The then vast untouched areas were not affected
by human activities, only by natural processes.
The six-fold increase in population is alarming in itself, but is aggravated
by the fact that each person consumes ever more. In the last century
population has tripled, water use has increased six-fold, and the extraction
of natural resources 12-fold. World Watch Institute estimated that if every
Chinese were to eat an egg daily, the required cultivated land to feed the
hens would be as large as Australia's total farmland.
It is in this perspective that recirculation and reuse has come to the fore.
Food and consumer goods all end up somewhere after use. Sustainable
sanitation connects the use and disposal of products to production of new
products.
Learning objective: to understand prevailing sanitation conditions in various corners of the
world.
Discuss your thoughts with colleagues/peers and identify some research questions you
would like to investigate. Write down for your own record what you already know or think about
this issue, and what you would like to know more about – before you continue to read.
Jan-Olof Drangert,
Linköping University,
Sweden
Conventional teaching + added learning
management
Alternative
approach
economics
public
health
Integration
during studies
agriculture
engineering
management
economics
public
health
It is up to the student/
participant to make the
integration herself
agriculture
engineering
Jan-Olof Drangert, Linköping University, Sweden
Knowledge development through peer learning
Mr. X
Ms. Y
Jan-Olof Drangert, Linköping University, Sweden
Life-long learning: climbing a competence ladder
Unconsciously
competent
Consciously
competent
Consciously
incompetent
Unconsciously
incompetent
Habit/routine
New skill/
information
Know
I don’t know
Don’t know what
I don’t know
Adapted from Ilbury and Sunter, 2001
Chapter 1. Sustainable sanitation – a review
Questions
Learning objectives
Module 1.1
Sanitary
conditions in
the world
How do we perceive
sanitary conditions?
What functions must a
sustainable system fulfil?
To become familiar with various
sanitary conditions in the world,
functions of sanitation, and to
foster a critical understanding
of statistics and other data.
Module 1.2
Resources
Where are the
resources?
What might be the
problem to access them?
To familiarise with a
coordinated view on resources,
and to understand the context
and role of sanitation.
Module 1.3
Resource
flows
From where do resources How resource flows are
come and where do they created and manipulated.
end up?
Methods to analyse flows.
Module 1.4
Is urbanisation a solution
Demographic or a problem for
change
improving sanitation?
To gain insights about the role
of demography in sanitation,
planning and implementation.
Jan-Olof Drangert, Linköping University, Sweden
Chapter 2. Sanitation management today and in future
Questions
Learning objectives
Module 2.1.
Sanitation
arrangements
Is there one system that
suits most conditions or must
we choose and combine?
Matching management with technology and
local conditions.
Module 2.2.
Major changes over
time
How does consumption and habitation
patterns impact reuse? What footprints
are left?
Gradual long-term changes in sanitation
arrangements and tracing origins of
change.
Module 2.3.
From policy to
action
Who should decide what is permitted?
Do polluters really pay?
Regulations and how to interpret and
translate them to local action and change.
Module 2.4.
User perspectives
What are residents appreciating? Why?
Be sensitized to variations in attitudes and
norms.
Module 2.5
A way forward
How to obtain all the information
we need?
Selecting a sustainable arrangement is
more than just choosing between technical
solutions
Module 2.6
Plans and design
- points to consider.
Planning and design - does it make any
difference if they are good or bad?
To appreciate the possibilities offered by
nature to facilitate easy use and operation
of household sanitation arrangements.
Module 2.7
Construction and
monitoring
What bottlenecks are there
for councils and residents?
Are there ways to go about it?
The paramount role of good construction for
smooth operation. How to raise ambitions
without stretching council capacity.
Jan-Olof Drangert, Linköping University, Sweden
Chapter 3. Sanitation and public health
Questions
Learning objectives
Module 3.1
Exposure and
effects in humans
How are infectious diseases
transmitted?
What happens when people are
exposed to pathogens?
To become familiar with the most important
pathogens found in water and sanitation
systems, with the symptoms they cause and
with their effect on individuals and
populations
Module 3.2
Environmental
transmission of
pathogens
Where do the pathogens come from?
How do pathogens in excreta
contaminate the environment?
To become familiar with environmental
transmission routes for pathogens,
especially in relation to water and sanitation.
Module 3.3
Pathogen reduction
How persistent are pathogens in the
environment?
How can we prevent exposure and
disease transmission in sanitation
systems?
To become familiar with the behaviour of
pathogens in the environment and the
effects of treatment and strategies for
minimizing the transmission of disease, esp.
in relation to agricultural use of excreta.
Module 3.4
Health targets
Which targets can be achieved in
relation to exposure and treatment?
How are barriers used in guidelines to
minimize health risks?
To become familiar with faecal indicators
and the risk concept, and to understand their
application in guidelines for reuse of excreta
and greywater.
Module 3.5
Risk management
Can we measure a risk of disease
transmission?
How can sanitation systems be
evaluated?
To be aware of how the potential health
impacts of sanitation systems can be
evaluated and compared regarding their
potential health impact.
Caroline Schönning, Swedish Institute for Communicable Disease Control, Solna, Sweden
Chapter 4. Sanitation and the environment
Questions
Learning objectives
Module 4.1
Cycles and
flows of plant
nutrients
How do plant nutrients and
water flow in nature?
How have these flows been
altered by Man?
To be familiar with cycles of plant
nutrients in nature and how various
sanitation systems affect these
cycles.
Module 4.2
Treatment of
excreta for
safe reuse
Is it safe to use treated faecal
matter in the garden?
How to treat urine and faeces for
safe handling and reuse in crop
cultivation. Co-treatment of organic
materials from households.
Module 4.3
Compost
treatment
What happens in a compost?
How is the material degraded
and what are the end products
like?
Composting as a biological
treatment of organic waste.
Processes and the function of the
system.
Module 4.4
Biogas ̶ a way
to solve
sanitation
problems.
How much biogas can be
produced from excreta and
biomass? How safe is the
process and its sludge?
To understand the fundamental
processes in biogas production,
and get an overview of biogas
generation in the world.
Björn Vinnerås Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences & Jan-Olof Drangert, Linköping University, Sweden
Chapter 4 con´t. Sanitation and the environment
Questions
Learning objectives
Module 4.5
Greywater is manmade
Greywater as a resource?
What happens with used
household chemicals?
The role of households in tackling
environmental and resource
challenges
Module 4.6
Greywater –
processes
What compounds can be
removed? How can Nature
assist or react?
To become familiar with basics of
various physical, chemical and
biological processes.
Module 4.7
Greywater treatment
Can we remove all the
pathogens and heavy metals?
What is in the sludge?
Get familiar with various treatment
options and with the application of
various processes
Module 4.8
Excreta fertilisers in
agriculture
How can ecological fertilisers
from excreta best be used?
Factors limiting yield.
Functions of plant nutrients.
Examples and recommendations.
Module 4.9
Environmental
systems analysis
Can sanitation systems be
compared fairly?
How to measure impacts?
System boundaries.
Quantification of environmental
effects and resource use.
Module 4.10
Comparisons of
sanitation systems
How can a dry urine diverting
toilet system be compared with
a conventional system?
Effects on water, climate and
various resource use.
Cost-benefit analysis.
Björn Vinnerås Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences & Jan-Olof Drangert, Linköping University, Sweden
Chapter 5 Applications: Sanitation in practice
Questions
Learning objectives
Module 5.1
Phosphorus –
Food security &
food for thought
Should we worry about
phosphorus?
Are there substitutes for
plant nutrients?
Phosphorus as a resource,
and its links to sanitation and
to food security.
Module 5.2
Public toilets
Can public toilets be
made attractive? Can
vandalism be avoided?
How to plan and implement
sustainable toilets in public
places.
Module 5.3
School toilets
Can schools inspire
To get acquainted with the
good hygiene and
special management and
promote eco-sanitation? construction needs of school
toilets.
Jan-Olof Drangert, Linköping University, Sweden
Web pages and other information material
• Rapidly growing
number of websites with info on
sanitation issues
• Broad information
on sanitation
activities in the
whole world
Jan-Olof Drangert, Linköping University, Sweden
Access and use of this material
• This material is free for use and citation
• It is available on the internet and can be downloaded as
pdf-files and PowerPoint-files
• Copyright is shared between Swedish University of
Agricultural Sciences, Uppsala; Swedish Institute for
Communicable Disease Control, Solna, and Vatema
Capacity Building Consultant, Stockholm, Sweden
• The material has been produced with the kind support of
Vatema Capacity Building Consultant. It is based on the
international training programme Ecological Alternatives
in Sanitation funded by Sida.
Jan-Olof Drangert, Linköping University, Sweden