The paradigm of ecological sanitation (ecosan) sees human excreta and wastewater from households as a resource which should be made available for use – after the required treatment steps. Ecosan does not favour a specific sanitation technology, but is rather an approach for handling substances that have so far been seen simply as wastewater and solid waste for disposal. In the last decade many ecosan projects have been implemented worldwide mainly in rural but also in periurban and urban areas. A variety of solutions exists that can be recommended for large-scale implementation in accordance with local physical, cultural and socio-economic conditions. This paper gives an overview of such recycling-oriented sanitation systems with a focus on the work of the German Development Cooperation (GTZ). It includes up-to-date information of several ecosan pilot and up-scaling projects from Sub-Saharan Africa, the Philippines and Germany. Ecosan technologies briefly described in this paper include urine-diversion dehydration (UDD) toilets, composting, biogas systems for animal manure and toilet waste, and urine diversion flush toilets for separate collection of urine. The potential to produce fertiliser and soil conditioner from human waste (by implementing “productive sanitation systems”) is becoming even more attractive nowadays due to rising food and fertiliser prices and diminishing soil fertility, especially for areas in sub-Saharan Africa where soils have been “mined” for nutrients over the decades (farmers too poor to afford expensive fertiliser).

Bibliographic information

Rüd, S., von Münch, E. (2008). Ecological Sanitation Selected example projects from Sub-Saharan Africa, Asia and Europe International Conference ‘Pathways towards Sustainable Sanitation in Africa’ Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, 24 September– 27 September 2008

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Peri-urbanRuralSchoolsUrban (entire city)Urban informal settlements (slums)English

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Burkina Faso

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