DEWATS Service Packages
Written by sbr on May 18, 2009 – 10:11 pm -BORDA announced in their DEWATS newsletter (March 2009) an interesting new tool for decentralised wastewater treatment solutions (DEWATS). According to BORDA, the service packages includes not simply the construction of hardware but a whole set of integrated measures which are combined according to demand. The following topics are covered:
• School Based Sanitation
• Community Based Sanitation
• Emergency Sanitation
• Sanitation for Hospitals & Hotels
• Sanitation for Agro-Industry
• Sanitation for Prisons
• Real Estate Sanitation
• Sludge Treatment Plant
• Health Impact Assessment & Hygiene Education
• Sanitation Mapping
• Capacity Development
Tags: BORDA, DEWATS, onsite, sanitation
Posted in Uncategorized, publications | No Comments »
new GTZ ecosan newsletter published
Written by jke on April 17, 2009 – 3:27 pm -
As admin and co-editor of the GTZ ecosan newsletter – a quarterly newsletter on ecological and sustainable sanitation – I am pleased to announce the publication of the latest edition no. 31 from April 2009.
The German Technical Cooperation (GTZ) recently introduced a new newsletter mailing tool which enables the ecosan program within GTZ to refocus on the actual content of each newsletter and at the same time highlight some sustainable sanitation projects that are partly funded by the German government and other donors.
The newsletter is available for download as a PDF file (0,4 MB) and may be subscribed to on this page (which also offers other interesting GTZ newsletters). An archive of previous editions is also available on the (relaunched) website of the GTZ ecosan program.
Tags: ecosan, gtz, newsletter, sanitation
Posted in ecosan, publications | No Comments »
New sanitation planning tools in IYS 2008
Written by sbr on November 6, 2008 – 7:56 pm -The call for better planning and long-term sustainability in sanitation projects is understandable considering still 2.5 billion people unserved with improved sanitation (and probably the same amount with non-sustainable sanitation). The UN International Year of Sanitation 2008 is chosen by several initiatives as the most appropriate time for publishing new guidelines and planning tools for sanitation.
The new fact sheet of the SuSanA working group “Sustainable Sanitation for cities and planning” summarizes the 3 most important planning documents: Sanitation 21 (IWA), HCES – Household Centred Environmental Sanitation (WSSCC/Eawag-Sandec) and SSA – Strategic Sanitation Approach (WSP). The fact sheet can be downloaded here: http://www.susana.org/images/documents/05-working-groups/wg06/final-docs/en-susana-factsheet-WG06-planning-version-1.1.pdf.
The Austrian Development Agency (ADA) in cooperation with the EcoSan Club has published a brochure on planning principles “Solutions in Sanitation – Planning Principles”. The publication is available as download: http://www.entwicklung.at/en/service/publikationen/folder-und-broschueren.html. That link offers also the possibility to order hard copies.
Furthermore NETSSAF also published a participatory planning tool which was distributed at the final conference of the network “Pathways towards Sustainable Sanitation in Africa” in September 2008 in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. It will be available soon at the webpage of the network.
Tags: IYS, NETSSAF, planning, sanitation, SuSanA
Posted in planning | No Comments »
new toilet facilities at Muyogoro Primary School, Rwanda
Written by jke on May 11, 2008 – 11:37 pm -Alexandra from Rwanda Village Concept Project (Rwanda VCP) wrote in the other day to inform us of an ecosan toilet that Rwanda VCP built at Muyogoro primary school in Rwanda earlier this year:
“From our work on malaria education in the village of Mpungwe and Muyogoro Primary School, we have noted that the current level of hygiene constitutes a significant danger to public health. We are providing adequate sanitation facilities for children through ecosan toilet construction at their primary schools after seeing that the existing ones can be a danger to the children health and the environment. (…) On Monday, December 17 2007, the construction started at Muyogoro primary school, located in Huye District, Nyakagezi subsector. This construction has been realised in partnership between RVCP, 2 International Participants and BVDA.”
click here to view the complete gallery
The Rwanda Village Concept Project is an international student-run project in Central Africa. This multidisciplinary development project was initiated in 1998 whereas the fieldwork started in 2002. Its aims are to improve the living standards in a Rwandan community by using simple and low cost methods and to develop the capabilties of students in participatory development work.
Dominik of pong.li was invited to cover the construction process with his camera and created these wonderful videos (full playlist on YouTube):
————————
“People in this area just came together to build that public infrastructure…”
Tags: ecosan, rwanda, sanitation, toilet, video
Posted in action, ecosan | No Comments »
The ‘Great Stink’ of the 21st Century
Written by jke on March 14, 2008 – 2:24 am -INVITATION to a World Water Day 2008 event hosted by Earthscan and The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
Join us for a panel discussion to launch The Last Taboo*: Opening the Door on the Global Sanitation Crisis – a new book supported by UNICEF, on the global sanitation crisis
TOPIC: The ‘Great Stink’ of the 21st Century
Why do 1.5 million children die each year from diarrhoeal disease? Because tiny particles of excreta get into their mouths. How? Because 150 years after ‘The Great Stink of London’ brought about a sanitation revolution, 2.6 billion people – 40% of the global population – do not have a decent place to ‘go’ and their bodily wastes are left lying about. Diarrhoeal diseases are not ‘water-related’, they are ‘s**t-related’. Until we call a spade a spade, this scandal will continue.
2008 is the International Year of Sanitation, and now is the time to speak out boldly and open up the excretory frontier. Join the speakers to insist that ways be found to overcome the silence which inhibits the access of millions of people from that basic necessity for public health and human dignity – a toilet.
Speakers: Maggie Black, co-author of The Last Taboo; Professor Sandy Cairncross, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine; Girish Menon, International Operations Director at Water Aid, DFID speaker to be confirmed
When: 20th March 2008
Time: 1pm – 2:30pm
Venue: The Lucas Room, London School of Tropical Hygiene and Medicine, London, UK
Location map: www.lshtm.ac.uk/location
*About the book
The Last Taboo: Opening the Door on the Global Sanitation Crisis, by Maggie Black and Ben Fawcett, brings this neglected topic out of the closet. This highly readable book is aimed at all readers interested in the causes and consequences of this global sanitation crisis. Discounted copies will be available at the event. Those who can’t make it to the event can purchase copies online.
Tags: book, crisis, disease, earthscan, IYS, London, sanitation, taboo, UNICEF
Posted in IYS, events, publications | No Comments »
UNSGAB chair talks about reuse-oriented sanitation
Written by sbr on November 22, 2007 – 8:25 pm -Dear all,
in his speech for the launch of the UN International Year of Sanitation 2008 the UNSGAB-chair Prince Willem-Alexander from the Netherlands pointed out the importance of reaching the water supply and sanitation MDGs in a sustainable way. Reuse of excreta and wastewater is promoted and the agricultural and energetical value of excreta and wastewater is stressed.
From the educational point of view he named the community-led total sanitation campaign in India as a good approach (well, there are pros and cons about that one – would be interesting to hear your opinion on the total sanitation campaign). From a technological point of view, Urine-Diversion toilets are named as a new innovation (considering that more than a million are installed in China it is not really something novel but good that it was mentioned). Other appropriate systems to reach the MDGs are given with “small-bore sewerage systems, pit emptying facilities, low-cost septic tank sludge treatment methods and the development and marketing of biogas technologies” – addressing bigger problems of low-cost decentralized conventional treatment systems… thinking of climate change, it would make more sense for me to invest into upgrading septic tanks to anaerobic digesters and pit latrines into Urine Diversion Dehydration toilets – then we also fight Methane-emissions… but just some thoughts…
The whole speach can be found at: http://esa.un.org/iys/iys_launch.shtml
Cheers,
sbr
Tags: ecosan, IYS, reuse, sanitation, UNSGAB
Posted in IYS | 1 Comment »
Did you know…
Written by jke on November 20, 2007 – 1:34 am -Did you know that globally some 2.6 billion people are without access to any kind of improved sanitation?
Did you know that more than 2.2 million people, mostly in developing countries, die each year from diseases associated with poor water and sanitation conditions?
Did you know that the most affected group is the one of children under the age of 5?
Did you know that sanitation rarely receives the required attention and priority by politicians and civil society alike despite its key importance on many other sectors and for achieving most of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)?
People often do not want to talk about sanitation, and when asked about their wishes, you’ll often hear answers like “a new tv set, a vcr, a car..” etc. instead. So how come sanitation – as a basic human need – has become such a neglected request?
And please beware: just because the above mentioned facts mainly cover developing countries, it doesn’t imply that industrialized nations are having much better sanitation systems! Just think of the public toilet system in your town and ask yourself: would you want to use these toilets (if any) for your next nature’s call?
See?
With this small blog on the internet, we’ll try to display various approaches to an improved sanitation, cover some good and bad technologies and hopefully help to put sanitation on your agenda.
Because change will only happen if people really want it.
Tags: children, disease, facts, sanitation, water
Posted in facts | 2 Comments »
