The New Nation - Internet Edition

In order to set up hygienic systems of human waste disposal, to retrieve and re-use the nutrients from human waste, and to economise water use, the concept of eco sanitation has been developed.

A contentious approach to sanitation is eco sanitation where sanitation can be viewed as a three-step process dealing with human excreta, containment, sanitization and recycling. The objective is to protect human health and the environment while reducing the use of water in the sanitation system and recycling nutrients. In practice, eco sanitation includes options such as flush-free (and odour-free) urinals, separation toilets for urine and faeces, dry and composting toilets, dehydration devices for composting of faeces, use of faeces or excreta for the generation of biogas, vacuum sewers and flush systems operating on minimal amounts of water etc.

The hardware of these technologies has been developed in some parts of the world, mainly in Norwegian countries, and it needs to be developed in Bangladesh too. Appropriate facilities are to be designed and mass-manufactured, to be made available and affordable, and various solutions - combinations of technologies and modules - need to be found for different social and economic contexts. Eco sanitation insists on maximum possible re-use of nutrients from human excreta. Urine uncontaminated by faeces requires minimal processing and can easily be re-used in farming and gardening. In order to avoid spread of pathogens, human faeces requires composting, either in a dry toilet without water, or if mixed with small volumes of wash or flushing water in a separate composting module, possibly dehydrated with the help of solar energy, or is to be digested in a biogas plant for recovery of methane gas and subsequent use of the dried sludge as fertilizer.

Eco sanitation generates opportunities that add value to human waste and possibilities of decentralized waste management are more amenable to citizen involvement all the while reducing pressure on public system. This can open up spaces for constructive engagement with local government on administrative matters, an area that is yet untapped. But it is a good news that some NGO's mainly Practical Action, Bangladesh have already started eco sanitation program in Gazipur Pourashava. Government should take some immediate initiatives to successful this program.

Rabeya Akter Rimi

Santosh, Tangail