Sanitation without pollution.

Abstract

The most effective way of protecting drinking water resources from domestic sewage is to use technologies that do not produce sewage. This paper gives an overview of emerging alternatives in the form of ecological sanitation systems for urban and peri-urban areas. A key feature of ecological sanitation is that it regards human excreta as a resource to be recycled rather than as waste to be disposed of. Examples given include ecological sanitation systems based on dehydration and decomposition from Mexico, El Salvador, Sweden, India and Vietnam. These systems need neither water for flushing, nor pipelines for transport, nor treatment plants and arrangements for the disposal of toxic sludge. Large scale application of ecological sanitation would lead to less environmental pollution, reduced water consumption, considerable savings on sewers and treatment plants and increased employment. In addition it would provide valuable resources for food production and wasteland development.