Scotland: National Rural Network
This fascinating workshop session of the International Rural Network conference held in Udaipur India in August 2009 built on the themes introduced during the day four plenary session. It focussed on exchanging experience and knowledge of ecological sanitation systems which offer potential livelihood, health and agricultural nutrient advantages as well as cleaning up water pollution and avoiding nutrient losses. The particular focus was on how rural communities and small rural towns can benefit from and manage their own systems.
The workshop began by examining the urban model of waste water treatment that is based on using highly valuable drinking water to flush human waste. The infrastructure required to do this is very expensive for rural communities and developing countries to replicate and wastes valuable resources. At the same time 3.4 million people die annually due to diseases caused by lack of sanitation. And 2.2 billion people don't have access to clean water.
One answer that the workshop explored is to "close the loop" by implementing reuse and recycling of nutrients and water as a holistic alternative to conventional sanitation solutions. This is sometimes called ecological sanitation or ecosan. There are loads of useful agricultural nutrients in urine that represent a real alternative to conventional fertiliser and at much lower cost. Composted faecal material is an excellent soil conditioner. We heard that urine can even be used to grow algae and make bio-diesel.
The workshop explored the wide range of technical solutions that can be used to convert the waste to a useful resource and include composting toilets, vacuum sewerage, urine diversion, bio-digestion and greywater separation and collection. It left us all with the clear message the we must look at alternatives to the flush and forget systems that the developed world has become used to.
The workshop was chaired by Johannes Heeb SEECON and included presentations by Petter Jenssen, Norwegian University of Life Sciences; Rachma Bisht; Dayanand Panse, Ecosan Services Foundation and Manoj Tribhuvan.
What do you think about ecological sanitation? Have you experience of compost toilets or greywater filtration systems? You can share your views and experiences by adding a comment to this article.
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Comments
SEPA was been tasked with
SEPA was been tasked with ensuring that the UK complies with the EU Water Framework Directive and we were deluged with a raft of often unworkable regulations.
They recognised that their task was impossible without the co operation, support and involvement of the wide ranging groups, organisations and agencies affected by the Directive.
The River Basin Management Plans, about to be published are a result of this collaborative effort and because of the speed of change in today's world it is a "living document" and may not mention Ecological Sanitation.
However, Ecological Sanitation is one of the many changes which is rising up the agenda fast, Anaerobic Digestion another.
Waste, whether it be food, human or animal by products has been given a bad press in our profligate past. Knee jerk, short term political actions in the name of human and animal health, have created barriers to progress for ES and other waste conversion developments. We must balance and address the bigger picture, which is, the sustainable management and conversion of waste to a safe resource.
Controlled, natural break down of waste products, including human waste, which produce safe fertiliser, is the way forward. There is a world shortage of nutrients and fertilisers impacting on our health and our ability to grow food sustainably. It is no longer acceptable to chuck it all out to sea, polluting our rivers on the way.
It may be unpalatable for most folk in the wealthy, "sanitised developed" west but I'm with the underdeveloped nations who know a thing or two about making the most from their few resources.
Scottish Water has made a small start in terms of composting but there is so much more that could be achieved by developing sewage waste to energy as the Victorians did all those years ago with London sewage system.
On the subject of waste,
On the subject of waste, after reading your comment we remembered the story about the "poo chute" in the Cairngorms. The project was launched after contamination of River Nethy and Loch Avon Basin. You can read more in this BBC news article:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/highlands_and_islands/7105454.stm