Alternative sanitation technologies for emergencies and reconstruction situations
Content Table
Emergency situations following events such as earthquakes, tsunamis, cyclones, floods, land-slides, droughts, and wars provide challenging environments for intervening agencies with regards to hygienic water and sanitation provision.
The concern is that quick fix emergency solutions for sanitation may not be sustainable in the long term, while many emergency interventions and their humanitarian efforts can often last for many years. Thus, in places where choices during an immediate emergency phase may impact the long term sustainability of a system, considerations for alternatives to conventional sanitation technologies are desirable. A keyword for the emergency context is preparedness in terms of knowing what the most appropriate solutions are, and possessing the means of implementing the chosen solution quickly. If a sanitation system exists which can provide benefits in the emergency phase, with long term applicability, and if it can be mobilized quickly, the win-win situation is apparent.
Biodegradable bags
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Urine diverting dry toilets (UDDT)
UDDTs separates urine from feces and with the potential to offer added benefits of innovative reuse and recycling possibilities of water, waste, and sanitized excreta.
An analysis s1 hows that the decisive factor behind the introduction of UDDTs is mainly to solve problems of one or a combination of challenging environments, such as crowding, high ground-water table or risk of recurrent floods. For example, a problem often encountered in emergencies is that latrines fill up too quickly, where UDDTs reduce the volume and thus prolonging its lifetime. At the same time, urine diversion also provides for quicker decomposition of excreta. For example, in Chad they introduced UDDTs in face of high human density in camps, and have managed to reduce the volume of excreta such that latrines compartments have not yet needed to be emptied. The UDDTs have also shown to contribute to enhancing the resilience of communities as illustrated by the case study in Mozambique in response to recurrent floods. This is because UDDTs in combination with using raised latrines is also very suitable for environments susceptible to floods or with high water tables, as it can prevent ground and surface water contamination, and safeguarding environmental and human health. However, in almost all cases the users haven’t collected all the benefits that UDDTs could generate in terms of nutrient reuse. In camps experiencing prolonged emergencies, such as ones in Chad and Nepal, this appears to have future potential as once the investment has been made, additional benefits could be tapped into. But if this second step should be possible, it needs to be very much adapted to the situation and cultural context.
Producers:
Urinals
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Raised latrines
To be added
Related Articles
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References
Reference 1 Johannessen, A., J. Porsani, E.Kvarnstrom, T. Niklasson. 2010. Solving sanitation challenges in emergencies and reconstruction situations with UDDT (Urine Diverting Dry Toilets) – a two step use approach. Poster at World Water Week summarising case study compilation.
Reference 2<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> Excreta disposal in emergencies” by Peter Harvey in 2007 (WEDC) available at www.wedc.lboro.ac.uk/publications. This document collected examples of many sustainable sanitation initiatives from the field.
Reference 3
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