Helvi Heinonen-Tanski University of Eastern Finland Department of Environmental Science
Kuopio campus, FI-70211 helvi.heinonentanski@uef.fi Keywords: Agriculture, poverty, sanitation, sustainability, urine fertilizer
urine has been studied as a fertilizer in dif-ferent crops (Pradhan et al. 2007, Heinonen-Tanski et al. 2007) and they produced as good as or higher yields than those treated with mineral fertilizer. The taste, chemical content and microbial quality of the urine fertilized vegetables are very similar compared to those treated with mineral fertilizer. Not only edible plants but also non-edible plants can be culti-vated using human urine as fertilizer.
On the other hand, human feces contain less plant nutrients and its volume is only ap-proximately one tenth of that of urine. Feces is very rich in enteric micro-organisms, es-pecially the pathogens therefore human fec-es must always be sanitized before use in ag-riculture and a good composting is one of the best ways to do this.
URINE FERTILIZER TO REDUCE POVERTY Sustainable sanitation would be a convenient way to obtain at least some fertilizers for use in rural areas where many people are so poor that their daily income is less than 2 $ (UN 2009). Annually the urine of one person can contain some 3–4 kg of N. On the other hand people are suffering from lack of food. If urine
were valued as a useful fertilizer, then many rural and peri-urban families could be per-suaded to build a simple toilet where plain urine could be collected and use as fertiliz-er in any season.
CO NCLUSIO NS
1. Agricultural and health organizations should encourage people to use human urine as a fertilizer especially: (a) if peo-ple are practicing agriculture without us-ing fertilizer, (b) if there is no wastewater treatment plants and sewage systems.
2. More scientific research work should be done to study cultivation in the tropics us-ing urine continuously to grow three or four crops annually in the same soil plots.
3. Although urine fertilized products had similar microbial and chemical quality compared to mineral fertilized products but still there has risen questions about the possible risk of pharmaceutical resi-dues and hormones in human urine and this issue should be studied in detail.
However, there are no literatures shown specific risks caused by pharmaceutical residues or hormones (Winker 2009).
Table 1. Yield achieved from different fertilizer treatments. (NG = not given)
Yields Fertilizers References
None mineral Urine feces
Maize (t/h) 1.50 2.70 3.20 3.70 Guzha et al. 2005
Cucumber (t/h) NG 25 30 NG Heinonen-Tanski et al. 2007
Cabbage (t/h) 55.11 76.45 83.56 NG Pradhan et al. 2007
Wheat (t/h) NG 6.01 5.65 NG Tidåker et al. 2007
Tomato fruit (g/6 kg soil) 74.5 180.7 216.4 NG Mnkeni et al. 2008
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Heinonen-Tanski, H., Sjöblom, A., Fabritius, H., Karinen, P. (2007). Pure human urine is a good fertilizer for cucumbers.
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(2007). Use of human urine fertilizer in cultivation of cabbage (Brassica olera-cea)—Impacts on chemical, microbial and flavor quality. J. Agr. Food Chem. 55, 8657-663.
Tidåker, P., Mattsson, B., Jönsson, H. (2007).
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Ph.D. Thesis; Hamburg University of Technology: Hamburg, Germany, http://
www.tuharburg.de/aww/english/pub-likationen/index.html
G
lobally, safe drinking water is lim-ited in supply. The situation is more alarming in developing countries where diseases and death cases associated with the consumption of polluted water are very rampant. According to the WHO, diar-rhea contributes to the death of 1.5 million children less than five years annually due to consumption of unsafe water and lack of basic sanitation. Many local communities rely solely on water wells for their domestic water needs, when they are fortunate to have one. However, often due to lack of maintenance and neglect, water well pumps stop functioning in a few years after they have been commissioned re-sulting in a colossal waste of resources. This paper researches into the possible ways to maintain hand pumps and ensure its sustain-able use. This paper is also aimed at evolving an efficient small-scale safe water manage-ment plan that revolves round the concerned communities as the major stake holders.INTRO DUC TIO N
Poor access to safe water remains a major threat to human health in developing coun-tries (WHO, 2004). High incidence of water pollution has rendered natural surface water bodies unsafe for domestic consumption yet the demand for portable water has been on a
steady increase. The use of boreholes fitted with hand pumps has been the major source of domestic water supply to rural communi-ties (Olatunji, 2003). Studies indicate that ow-ing to poor management, 90 % of hand pumps break down within 3 years of installation and need repair and spare parts (van Beers, 2000).
PRO BLE MS FACING HAN D PUM P SUSTAINABILIT Y
According to UNICEF (1999), the majority of failures in rural water supply projects, over the long term, are attributable to problems with maintenance. Several researchers have identified inadequate or non-existent main-tenance as the major factor militating against the sustainability of hand pumps (Elson et al., 2000 and Olatunji, 2003). Secondly, the non availability of local technical expertise for re-pairs has plagued the sustainability of communi-ty water hand pumps. Most communities can not afford the cost of maintaining a readily available technical expertise that needs to be sufficient-ly motivated in order to guarantee their servic-es and continued availability.
Another factor that has also undermined water pump sustainability is the absence of a sustainable functioning spare part supply for hand pump. Even when technical exper-tise is locally available, difficulty in