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Session Report Cover Sheet SESSION CODE: SANI - 17 Name of Convener(s): Stockholm Environment Institute / EcoSanRes DATE: 17 - March, 2003 Session Title: Ecological Sanitation –Progress being Made Around the world: What is ECOSAN and what is being done generally? Accommodation: Gimmond Hotel Contact information Contact No.: 090 7812 5129 in Japan Contact E-mail: [email protected] 1 Session Report SESSION CODE: SANI - 17 Reporter/Rapporteur: Mayling Simpson-Hebert, Paul Calvert Contact E-mail : [email protected] 1. Key Issues Virtually all existing sanitation today is unsustainable, is polluting and spreads disease. This means that the current sanitation crisis is far bigger than most people realize. We must add to the 2,4 billion unserved some 3 billion who use pit toilets flush toilets and sewers. Conventional sanitation (pitlatrines, flush toilets and sewage systems) fails to prevent disease, fails to recycle nutrients and consumes and pollutes water resources. Ecological sanitation is an alternative approach to conventional sanitation. It is not a single technology but rather a holistic approach involving keeping human excreta out of water, containing and destroying pathogens, and recycling nutrients to agriculture. It includes such components as urine diverting toilets, soil composting toilets, non-flush toilets. Ecosan is far more effective in pathogen containment and destruction than conventional sanitation approaches. 2. Actions Promotion of Ecological Sanitation within the context of reaching the Millennium Goals (Contributing significantly to the 100,000 toilets required per day for the next 12 years) Financing of large-scale urban and rural ecological sanitation applications. Education of the water and sanitation sector professionals, political leaders and communities. Capacity building including increasing the number of people who can implement ecological sanitation systems in rural and urban areas. Global programme for recycling phosphorus from urine and soil. 3. Commitments GTZ (Germany), Sida(Sweden), UNDP, Water and Sanitation Program (World Bank), City of Kyoto, Government of Uganda and UNEP expressed their long-term commitments to ecosan development. 2 4. Database It was questioned whether ecosan is economical. In fact it is less costly than conventional approaches. It reduces the requirement for artificial (chemical) fertilizer. It reduces health costs through containment and sanitization. Reduces waste water and treatment costs, prevents environmental damage and the associated remedial costs. Ecosan pays for itself. 5. Innovations Ecosan represents a paradigm shift in the entire approach to sanitation. It means that there is true containment, sanitization and recycling – something that does not exist in today’s sanitations systems It deals with the relationship between humans and soil – a cultural and behavioural change Urine diversion toilets represent a major innovation that can be applied to present sanitation systems. Urine contains 80% of the nutrients leaving the body and by not mixing it with faeces, can be used directly as a fertilizer in agriculture. Keeping faecal material separate allows for economical treatment systems using dehydration and soil composting to reduce pathogens prior to recycling. Nutrient recycling through ecosan systems reduces the amount of phosphorus to be extracted from the earth’s crust. Phosphorus is a limited mineral andcheap reserves will be depleted within 60 –130 years. 3