UNSGAB chair talks about reuse-oriented sanitation

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

Did you know…

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.

Welcome to saniblog!

Welcome to saniblog – the world’s first blog on sanitation!

With the launch of the up-coming International Year of Sanitation 2008 on Wednesday, November 21st 2007, and the World Toilet Day on November 19th, I am very pleased to launch the first blog dedicated to sanitation.

As this blog has just been created, please subscribe to this site and stay tuned for more updates within the next few days.