Ecological Sanitation

Ecological Sanitation

Ecological sanitation, commonly shortened to eco-san or ecosan, seeks to address the issues of modern sanitation systems, which are environmentally destructive. Current thinking sees excrement as waste and a problem. Modern flush toilets simply transfer human excrement using large quantities of water, where it needs to be treated or causes pollution if untreated.

Problems and issues

Often, the water used is of drinking quality. Only 1% of global water is drinkable, therefore, it is a precious resource. Water fit to be drunk is being used for other purposes that can use lesser quality water, such as toilets.

Mixing feces and urine makes treatment difficult. All waste water treatment plants use some natural/biological processes, but nature does not normally have this waste water, so there are no microbes that can deal with this mix. In order to treat waste, treatment plants have to do this in stages. Each stage treats a different component of the mix by creating the right environment for microbes to do their work (aerobic, anaerobic, anoxic and the right pH). This is costly and requires energy.

A mix of domestic and industrial effluent in water cannot be treated properly, for heavy metals and other polutants make this water unsuitable for reuse. This is normally discharged into the ground or water bodies.

Due to the complexity of the treatment process, treatment plants tend to be large. This requires costly infrastructure to build and maintain it, often out of the reach of poorer communities.

Studies have shown that a person's urine contains most of the nutrients to grow enough food for a person for another day. [ [http://www.context.org/ICLIB/IC42/Jeavons.htm John Jeavons - Cultivating Our Garden ] ] Urea is the major component of urine, yet we produce vast quantities of urea by using fossil fuels. By properly managing urine, treatment costs as well as fertilizer costs can be reduced. Feces also contains recognized nutrients, and could be used for modern agriculture, owing to the micronutrient deficiency as a significant problem.

Ecosan techniques

* Composting toilet
* Urine diversion
* Waste water garden

References

External links

* [http://www.ecosan.nl/ Ecosan program, a part of the Dutch WASTE group]
* [http://www.ecosanres.org/ EcoSanRes Programme website]


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Поможем написать курсовую

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Ecological sanitation — Ecological sanitation, also known as ecosan or eco san, are terms coined to describe a form of sanitation that usually involves urine diversion and the recycling of water and nutrients contained within human wastes back into the local environment …   Wikipedia

  • Sanitation — is the hygienic means of preventing human contact from the hazards of wastes to promote health. Hazards can be either physical, microbiological, biological or chemical agents of disease. Wastes that can cause health problems are human and animal… …   Wikipedia

  • Sustainable Sanitation Alliance (SuSanA) — Motivated by the United Nation’s (UN) decision to declare 2008 as International Year of Sanitation (IYS), a core group of organisations active in the field of sustainable sanitation took the initiative to form a task force to support the IYS. In… …   Wikipedia

  • Sustainable sanitation — Background for the sanitation dilemma The urgency for action in the sanitation sector is obvious, considering the 2.6 billion people world wide who remain without access to any kind of improved sanitation, and the 2.2 million annual deaths… …   Wikipedia

  • Water supply and sanitation in the European Union — still is under the responsibility of each member state. Nevertheless, the European Union established some policies which impact the National water strategies tremendously. However, WSS evolved in every Member State independently until the… …   Wikipedia

  • Water supply and sanitation in Saudi Arabia — differs from most other countries in three significant aspects. First, it relies almost exclusively on two sources that are absent in most other countries: desalination and fossil water. Second, given the substantial oil wealth of the country,… …   Wikipedia

  • Water supply and sanitation in the Netherlands — is provided in good quality and at a reasonable price to the entire population. Water consumption is one of the lowest in developed countries at 124 liter per capita per day and water leakage in the distribution network is one of the lowest in… …   Wikipedia

  • ArborLoo — Un Arborloo à Cap Haïtien, Haïti. L’Arborloo est une toilette simple et écologique constituée d une petite fosse surmontée d un plancher ou d une dalle, et d une superstructure simple. Après remplissage, les excréments compostés sont exploités… …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Arborloo — Un Arborloo à Cap Haïtien, Haïti. L’Arborloo est une toilette simple et écologique constituée d une petite fosse surmontée d un plancher ou d une dalle, et d une superstructure simple. Après remplissage, les excréments compostés sont exploités… …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Fossas migratórias — Arborloo Un Arborloo à Cap Haïtien, Haïti. L’Arborloo est une toilette simple et écologique constituée d une petite fosse surmontée d un plancher ou d une dalle, et d une superstructure simple. Après remplissage, les excréments compostés sont… …   Wikipédia en Français

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”