Waterless Urinals: A Resource Book

This is a Wonderful 39 page  Technical document  on covering  all aspect  of Waterless Urinals and some variants that incorporates
the core ideas.

written by

• Dr V M Chariar
• S Ramesh Sakthivel

from forward

This Resource Book is a guide that seeks to assist individuals, builders, engineers, architects, and policy makers in promoting waterless urinals and the benefits of harvesting urine for reuse through waterless urinals and urine diverting toilets.

Chapters cover a wide set of Waterless Urinals details

1. Waterless Urinals
   1. 1.1  Advantages of Waterless Urinals and Reuse of Urine
   2. 1.2  Demerits of Conventional Urinals
2. Functioning of Waterless Urinals
   1. 2.1  Sealant Liquid Traps
   2. 2.2  Membrane Traps
   3. 2.3  Biological Blocks
   4. 2.4  Comparative Analysis of Popular Odour Traps
   5. 2.5  Other Types of odour Traps
   6. 2.6  Installation and Maintenance of Waterless Urinals
3. Innovative Urinal Designs
   1. 3.1  Public Urinal Kiosk 21
   2. 3.2  Green Waterless Urinal
   3. 3.3  Self Constructed Urinals
4. Urine Diverting Toilets
5. Urine Harvesting for Agriculture
   1. 5.1  Safe Application of Urine 3
   2. 5.2  Methods of Urine Application
6. Other Applications of Urine
7. Challenges and the Way Forward
8. References and Further Reading

The book has a solid collection of tables and diagrams that support the text

• Comparative analysis of popular odour traps
• Average chemical composition of fresh urine
• Recommended dose of urine for various crops
• Waterless urinals for men
• Schematic diagram showing functioning of urinals
• Sealant liquid based odour trap
• Urinals with sealant liquid based odour traps
• Flat rubber tube by Keramag and silicon membranes by Addicom
• LDPE membrane by Shital Ceramics
• Biological blocks
• Formwork used for fabrication of public urinal kiosk
• Reinforced concrete public urinal kiosk
• Drawing of public urinal kiosk established at IIT Delhi
• Green urinal established at IIT Delhi
• Plant bed of green urinal with perforated pipe
• Drawing of public urinal kiosk established at IIT Delhi
• Self constructed urinal Eco‐lily
• Squatting type urine diverting dry toilet with two chambers
• Urine diverting no mix toilet 27 Sectional view of a urine diverting dry toilet
• Deep injection of urine using soil injector
• Deep injection of urine using perforated pet bottles
• Use of fertilisation tank for applying urine through drip irrigation
• Manually operated reactor for recovery of struvite
• Schematic drawing of ammonia stripping from urine

Among many topics the Doc  weighs pros and cons of of traps to prevent odor and gases for escaping .Most of the solutions  have cost / maintenance barriers that limit feasibility to particular set of cases. India is a large county and need a variety of solutions as does the rest of the world.

We will  will  be interested to learn more about Zerodor
“An odourless trap Zerodor which does not require replaceable parts or consumables resulting in low maintenance costs has been developed at IIT Delhi. This model is in final test stage yet to be made commercially available.”    more on Zerodor…

further notes from forward

Waterless Urinals do not require water for flushing and can be promoted at homes, institutions and public places to save water, energy and to harvest urine as a resource. Reduction in infrastructure required for water supply and waste water treatment is also a spinoff arising from installing waterless urinals. The concept, founded on the principles of ecological sanitation helps in preventing environmental damage caused by conventional flush sanitation systems.

In recent years, Human Urine has been identified as a potential resource that can be beneficially used for agriculture and industrial purposes. Human urine contains significant portion of essential plant nutrients such as nitrogen, phosphate and potassium excreted by human beings. Urine and faeces can also be separated employing systems such as urine diverting toilets. In the light of diminishing world’s phosphate and oil reserves which determine availability as well as pricing of mineral fertilisers, harvesting urine for reuse in agriculture assumes significant importance. Akin to the movement for harvesting rain water, urine harvesting is a concept which could have huge implications for resource conservation.

Link to download  book & A deeper overview:

with excerpts can be found on the the India Water Portal site  more….

Prepared By

• Indian Institute of Technology Delhi
• Vigyan Vijay Foundation

Funded by 

• UNICEF
• SEI Stockholm Environment Institute

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• UNICEF Report Highlights India’s Water Management Woes (circleofblue.org)
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Stanford Nitrogen Group – Energy from Waste Nitrogen – Wastewater Treatment research

 When looking at sanitation/wastewater treatment and making it economically feasible for more parts of the world, this is very interesting research.   Some will say it has roots in the fact that there is “gold”  in out crap…

Related links to this research:

Wastewater as a Clean Energy Source:

  …On May 1, a panel of judges awarded the $100,000 National University Clean Energy Business Challenge prize to the Stanford team for its project to convert nitrogen waste into nitrous oxide that is then used for clean power generation….

Paper: Nitrogen removal with energy recovery through N₂O decomposition:

by Yaniv D. Scherson ,  George F. Wells ,  Sung-Geun Woo ,  Jangho Lee ,  Joonhong Park ,  Brian J. Cantwell and Craig S. Criddle

A new process for the removal of nitrogen from wastewater is introduced. The process involves three steps: (1) partial nitrification of NH₄⁺ to NO₂⁻; (2) partial anoxic reduction of NO₂⁻ to N₂O; and (3) N₂O conversion to N₂ with energy recovery by either catalytic decomposition to N₂ and O₂ or use of N₂O to oxidize biogas CH₄. Steps 1 and 3 have been previously established at full-scale. Accordingly, bench-scale experiments focused on step 2. Two strategies were evaluated and found to be effective: in the first, Fe(II) was used to abiotically reduce NO₂⁻ to N₂O; in the second, COD stored as polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB) was used as the electron donor for partial heterotrophic reduction of NO₂⁻ to N₂O. ….

Researchers use rocket science for sustainable waste treatment process

Normally, we want to discourage these gases from forming,” said Craig Criddle, a professor of civil and environmental engineering and senior fellow at the Woods Institute for the Environment at Stanford. “But by encouraging the formation of nitrous oxide, we can remove harmful nitrogen from the water and simultaneously increase methane production for use as fuel.

• Yaniv D. Scherson’s profile
• The Criddle Research Group / Professor Craig S. Criddle
• Brian J. Cantwell’s profile
• George F. Wells’ profile
• The Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment

Related articles

• Total N2O emissions-which are believed to come primarily from nitrogen fertilizers used in agricultural production-would account for about 8 percent of California’s total greenhouse gas emissions. (familysurvivalprotocol.com)
• 1st International IWA Conference on Holistic Sludge Management (washlink.wordpress.com)
• Major Advance in Generating Electricity From Wastewater (wakingtimes.com)
• Major Advance in Generating Electricity From Wastewater (myscienceacademy.org)
• The Final Frontier of Water and Wastewater Treatment: Sludge Management Equipment Market Set to Reach $9.9 Billion by 2017 (prweb.com)

Catarina de Albuquerque addresses stigmatization of groups who lack water and sanitation.

UN Special Rapporteur on the human right to safe drinking water and sanitation   Catarina de Albuquerque has called on states to address the issue of stigmatization of groups and communities because of lack to water and sanitation.

She presented a report to the UN Human Rights Council focusing on the links between stigma and the realization of the human rights to water and sanitation.

The 22 page PDF report “Report of the Special Rapporteur on the human right to safe drinking water and sanitation, Catarina de Albuquerque | Stigma and the realization of the human rights to water and sanitation“

is available in  English French Spanish Arabic Chinese(Mandarin) Russian

Summary from Report:

“The Special Rapporteur on the human right to safe drinking water and sanitation submits the present report in accordance with Human Rights Council resolution 16/2. She focuses on the links between stigma and the human rights framework as it relates to water and sanitation. She has found that stigma, as a deeply entrenched social and cultural phenomenon, lies at the root of many human rights violations and results in entire population groups being disadvantaged and excluded.

The Special Rapporteur seeks to convey an understanding of stigma and to elucidate its drivers. She links stigma explicitly to water, sanitation and hygiene before examining different manifestations of stigma. She situates stigma in the human rights framework considering, in particular, human dignity, the human rights to water, sanitation, non-discrimination and equality, the prohibition of degrading treatment, and the right to privacy. Based on this analysis, the Special Rapporteur seeks to identify appropriate strategies for preventing and responding to stigma from a human rights perspective, before concluding with a set of recommendations. She emphasizes that States cannot fully realize the human rights to water and sanitation without addressing stigma as a root cause of discrimination and other human rights violations.”

1.  Introduction
2. Understanding stigma and its drivers
3. Stigma and its links to water, sanitation and hygiene
4. Manifestations of stigma
5. Situating stigma in the human rights framework
6. Identifying appropriate strategies for prevention and response
7. Conclusions and recommendations

Strategies for prevention and response detailed in the report include

• Participation and empowerment
• Awareness-raising to break taboos and challenge stereotypes
• Legislative, policy and institutional measures
• Adopting targeted interventions
• Adopting technical measures .
• Ensuring access to justice

Related articles

• California law on human right to water sets example for others (bikyamasr.com)
• Water Makes Waves at UN General Assembly Debates (circleofblue.org)

Keeping informed about WASH : Water, Sanitation, Hygiene and Health Newsletter

The “Water, Sanitation, Hygiene and Health Newsletter ” from WHO is a  nice newsletter to subscribe to.  Its easy to skim but usually has a couple of great morsels of information with links that you will want to click through to.

If you would like to be added to their mailing list please email LISTSERV@who.int with the following:
To subscribe please include the text “subscribe WATERSANITATION” in the body of your email message.

Here is a sample of the latest newsletter. I can’t find a web page, it  appears to be only be accessible in a email

Water, Sanitation, Hygiene and Health Newsletter N° 158 / 10 August 2012

 

 

A Manual for Economic Assessment of Drinking-water Interventions

This manual describes a practical technique for appraising or evaluating small-scale interventions that seek to provide safer and more accessible drinking-water to rural people. It complements the WHO/IWA publication Valuing Water, Valuing Livelihoods.

http://www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/publications/2012/economic_assessment_manual/en/

 

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Tracking national financing to sanitation and drinking-water: A UN-Water GLAAS Working Paper 

Just published, this full background document produced for the UN-Water Global Analysis and Assessment of Sanitation and Drinking-water reviews current experiences relating to tracking financial flows to WASH. It presents a methodological framework which provides a point of departure for global partners to develop and roll out an internationally agreed method. The full document is available here:   http://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/10665/75225/1/WHO_HSE_WSH_12.05_eng.pdf

A first meeting to take forward this initiative will take place 27 August at Stockholm World Water Week. Details available at:

http://www.worldwaterweek.org/sa/node.asp?node=1346&selEvent=&selTheme=&selYear=&filter=1&mySchedule=&txbFreeText=UN-water&selRegion=&sa_content_url=%2Fplugins%2FEventFinder%2Fevent%2Easp&sa_title=Tracking+National+Financial+Flows+to+Sanitation%2C+Hygiene+and+Drinking-water&id=5&event=504

 

 

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Register today for the 2012 Chapel Hill Water and Health Conference!

The 2012 Water and Health Conference: Science, Policy and Innovation, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA, 29 October to 2 November, offers participants nearly 40 networking and workshop opportunities, and over 200 verbal and poster presentations around the following themes and more: Monitoring and Evaluation for Sustainability, Ecosystem Protection and Drinking Water Safety, WaSH and Child Health, Beyond 2015: Realizing Universal Access and Human Rights, Household-centered WaSH.  Early bird registration rate through August 15 at: http://whconference.unc.edu/register.cfm

 

 

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Newly released WHO report indicates increase in cholera cases in 2011

A total of 58 countries from all continents reported a cumulative total of 589 854 cholera cases, representing an increase of 85% from 2010.  The greatest proportion of cases was reported from the island of Hispaniola and the African continent.  These trends reflect the need to shift from basic responsiveness to a comprehensive, multidisciplinary approach that works with communities to improve access to safe drinking-water and sanitation, encourages behavioural change and promotes the targeted use of oral cholera vaccines where the disease is endemic. Access the report online at http://www.who.int/wer/2012/wer873132/en/index.html

 

 

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Journal of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene for Development

The Journal of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene for Development is a peer-reviewed journal devoted to the dissemination of high-quality information on the science, policy and practice of drinking-water supply, sanitation and hygiene at local, national and international levels, published by IWA Publishing.
Click on the links below to view abstracts of some of the papers included in the latest issue of the journal:

 

Potential of community prepared wooden charcoal of Assam (India) for As(III) removal through batch and continuous column studies. Kamal Uddin Ahamad and Mohammad Jawed, 95–102 doi:10.2166/washdev.2012.039

http://www.iwaponline.com/washdev/002/washdev0020095.htm

 

A conceptual framework to evaluate the outcomes and impacts of water safety plans.

Richard J. Gelting, Kristin Delea and Elizabeth Medlin, 103–111 doi:10.2166/washdev.2012.079

http://www.iwaponline.com/washdev/002/washdev0020103.htm

 

Water resources management in central northern Namibia using empirically grounded modelling. M. Zimmermann, 112–123 doi:10.2166/washdev.2012.090

http://www.iwaponline.com/washdev/002/washdev0020112.htm

 

Applying the Household-Centered Environmental Sanitation planning approach: a case study from Nepal. Mingma Gyalzen Sherpa, Christoph Lüthi and Thammarat Koottatep, 124–132 doi:10.2166/washdev.2012.021

http://www.iwaponline.com/washdev/002/washdev0020124.htm

 

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For subscription information on the journal:
http://www.iwaponline.com/washdev/subscriptions.htm
For a sample copy: http://www.iwaponline.com/sample.htm
To register for Contents Alert: http://www.iwapublishing.com/template.cfm?name=mailings

 

 

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Water, Sanitation, Hygiene and Health Newsletter Details:

Please forward this email on to anyone who may be interested in its contents.

TO SUBSCRIBE

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