Sustainable Sanitation, Part 3

Wherever the word sanitation has been used, it has been associated with the efforts of government agencies and non-profit public health organizations. This is changing. Though sanitation has not lost its public character, it is increasingly being pushed out of the realm of public finance and stewardship in developing countries. Without laws and policies to drive sustainable practices, the private sector will do no better than governments or public institutions in providing sanitation that meets the criteria for sustainability.

Gary Gardner, a Senior Researcher at the Worldwatch Institute, said "The baseline precept for organic matter management is this: in a fully sustainable world, all organic flows must cycle." Organic flows are not respected in current practices, but future trends may be forced in that direction, as soil health declines and population numbers increase. Scarcity of clean water, limits to capital expenditures on sanitation, and public health threats may also move attitudes and practices into a more sustainable realm. But it's not more failures we are hoping for: it is innovation, wisdom, and the political will that will make it possible for sustainable sanitation to be made available to all people, regardless of place or income level.

Small projects have demonstrated sanitation systems that are culturally appropriate, locally responsible, and functionally sustainable. Bringing these efforts to scale will require replacing the engineering and financial infrastructure that supports sewerage with one that supports ecological innovations in waste treatment. Undoing practices that threaten to harm human health or the environment and rebuilding sanitation infrastructure from a sustainability orientation is the challenge.

Sanitation that is sustainable spends the minimal amount of energy and resources with the least loss of useable matter to contain and convert it to its usable form in agriculture. Evaluating any given sanitation system calls for a survey of energy and material inputs to useable and un-useable outputs. How can we decide which is the optimal sanitation system for a given place? By using the concept of entropy - a concept derived from the second law of thermodynamics - to measure the relationship between waste (human and industrial), the processes and methods used to treat it, and its final disposition.

Entropy is a tool that can measure natural resources, energy, capital, and labor inputs and evaluate outputs. Sustainable sanitation utilizes low entropy systems, which minimize inputs and maximize useful outputs. Future trends in sanitation bode well if entropy becomes a consideration in policy and planning.

Laura Orlando

Background Information

Sustainable Sanitation, Part 1 - A Historical Perspective

Sustainable Sanitation, Part 2 - Current Practices

Gary Gardner, "Recycling Organic Waste: From Urban Pollutant to Farm Resource," Worldwatch Paper 135, published by the Worldwatch Institute

Information about sewage sludge and the hazards of its application on land

Articles about sewerage and sewage sludge

ReSource Musings Archive