B ACKGROUND AND MOTIVATION

Ecological sanitation – abbreviated as ecosan – is a concept originally developed to achieve the Millennium Development Goals in the sanitation sector (Winblad &

Simpson-Hébert 2004). Ecosan does not favour any particular sanitation technology but concentrates on the principles which human waste management should follow.

The basic idea of ecosan includes improvement of the quality of life at household level, good governance principles, holistic and integrated waste and water supply management and respect for the environment. (International Hydrological Programme 2006.) The main principles of ecosan involve the proper treatment of wastewater and nutrient recycling, returning the nutrients back to nature and achieving a balance between community development and the environment. In this dissertation, the term ecosan covers only the composition of human faeces and

separation of urine for fertiliser purposes, and thus refers to the use of dry toilets with separation facilities.

Ecological sanitation, or sustainable sanitation as it can be referred to as well, aims at a closed cycle. Current wastewater treatment is based on an open cycle:

crops are grown, food is eaten, defecated, transported by water to be treated (this step is not always taken) and (cleaned) wastewater is released to rivers, lakes and seas. Meanwhile, the nutrients required to grow crops are diminishing from the soil and have to be supported by adding chemical fertiliser manufactured from minerals such as phosphate. This means that the nutrients enter the cycle from one end and exit the other, instead of circulating within the same cycle. Sustainable sanitation aims at a closed cycle instead of the current open one, where nutrients are not restored back to the soil.

In this research, ecological sanitation is narrowed down to its strictest definition.

Ecological sanitation in the broadest terms is about preventing pollution, sanitising excreta and using safe products in agriculture (Winblad & Simpson-Hébert 2004).

However, when examined further, sustainable sanitation (i.e. ecosan) includes also sustainable recovery and the reuse of human excreta (either by separating, diverting or combining) (SIDA 1998), and optimises the management of nutrients and water resources (Langergraber & Muellegger 2005). Some even specify that ecological sanitation includes urine diversion (Smet & Sugden 2006) and closed or renewable energy cycle (WaterAid 2011a). Here, ecological sanitation refers to water-conserving sanitation methods and therefore excludes centralised wastewater treatment plants, although nutrient recycling and energy efficiency have been established on that level as well.

However, it is necessary to bear in mind that sustainable sanitation is not only about the closed cycle. It affects much more than can at first be realised. Using clean water as a transport medium for excreta is extremely wasteful, especially in dry areas of our planet. Untreated wastewater spreads disease such as diarrhoea, which can kill up to 2 million people annually, most of whom are children under 5 years of age (WHO 2012). In addition the nutrients in wastewater cause eutrophication of water bodies instead of fertilising the soil. High infant mortality leads to people having more children, leading (unlike one might assume) to population growth. Sick people cannot work, making the economy weaker. Insufficient sanitation at schools

puberty – uneducated women are more likely to have more children, again contributing to uncontrolled population growth. (UNESCO 2000).

Meanwhile, agriculture must produce more and more food for the growing population, while the natural nutrients of the soil are diminishing. Minerals are being mined for the manufacturing of chemical fertiliser, yet phosphorus, a vital nutrient, seems to be lacking in soils and instead is causing eutrophication in lakes and seas. As the price of fertiliser grows, so does the price of food, which can lead to food shortages and even starvation. (van Vurren et al. 2010.)

Eventually, everything seems to be linked to everything else, and this cycle of events, starting from sanitation, includes every human being on the planet. Imagine yourself living without a proper toilet, as 2.5 billion people today (WHO 2012). As many as 1.1 billion people, who have no toilet at all, practice open defecation. It all comes down to worthwhile human life, a chance to live in a clean and healthy environment with affordable food, education, clean water and safety – with dignity.

(WHO/UNICEF 2012a.)

Sustainability, as described first in the Brundtland Commission report (1987), includes economic, social, cultural and environmental aspects. Indeed, it is challenging to reach a sustainable solution for anything without addressing all these aspects. This is the case also with sanitation, where there are so many variables in the equation. Unfortunately, sanitation is often considered a difficult topic to handle, a taboo even, and it would require significant changes in people’s attitudes, policies and legislation – in a word, cooperation between the various sectors – to allow sanitation practice to develop in a sustainable manner.

Even though ecosan is seen by many as a solution for the poor in developing countries, there is no reason why it should be disregarded in Western countries, either. In fact, given the facts of expendable phosphorous resources in the world and the advanced technology available in industrialised countries, they should be more than interested in developing ecosan solutions. Dry toilets are the oldest type of latrine next to pit latrines. However, in a few short decades the water closet and drainage replaced the old fashioned dry toilet in cities, and soon the rural areas followed suit. Meanwhile, synthetic fertilisers replaced manure on the fields, and legislation was quickly updated. Today, the legislature in many states does not consider ecological sanitation a feasible option for fertiliser use – and in sanitation it is only a secondary option after waterborne lavatories. Even though researchers

have studied the science and acceptability behind ecological sanitation and nutrient recycling (e.g. Brands 2014), practical solutions are still lacking – often due to restrictions in legislation. The role of legislation has not been studied in detail, so this research aims at solving what issues are limiting ecological sanitation despite the best efforts.