Solving the Global Sanitation Crisis Discussion Panel – CGI U 2013

Washlink comment: This  is way too short given the panelists, none the less still great to watch.  The first 2 quarters of an hour and last quarter are the best. The third quarter – has audio problems – when the audience give reports from their  breakup group meetings.

Today, more people around the world have access to a mobile phone than a toilet. An estimated 2.5 billion people lack access to clean and safe bathrooms, resulting in diarrheal diseases that kill more children than AIDS, malaria, and measles combined. Many developing country governments simply do not have the financial or human capital to deliver improved sanitation to everyone who needs it. Furthermore, many development programs that strive to provide sanitation often fail to have the impact and sustainability needed to scale, and instead distort the market for innovation in the sanitation field. To truly move the needle on this challenge, profitable sanitation services need to be developed so that businesses—rather than nonprofits—can expand access to coverage in ways that will not only increase their profit margins, but also make a major public health impact. This panel will focus on how students can get involved in market creation for sanitation enterprises and will highlight recent innovations and business models that have already been developed by young leaders.

source….

Moderator:

Fred de Sam Lazaro, Correspondent, PBS Newshour, Senior Fellow, Saint Mary’s University

Participants:

• Miriam Atuya,  SANENERGY   sales;  Student, Trinity University
• Edward  Ned Breslin, Chief Executive Officer, Water For People
• Sebastien Tilmans, Co-founder, re.source; Ph.D. Candidate, Stanford University
• Gary White, Co-founder and CEO, Water.org

About Clinton Global Initiative University (CGI U)

Building on the successful model of the Clinton Global Initiative, which brings together world leaders to take action on global challenges, President Clinton launched the Clinton Global Initiative University (CGI U) in 2007 to engage the next generation of leaders on college campuses around the world.

Each year, CGI U hosts a meeting where students, youth organizations, topic experts, and celebrities come together to discuss and develop innovative solutions to pressing global challenges. CGI U 2013 was held at Washington University in St. Louis from April 5 – 7, 2013, bringing together nearly 1,200 attendees to make a difference in CGI U’s five focus areas: Education, Environment and Climate Change, Peace and Human Rights, Poverty Alleviation, and Public Health.

Related articles:

• Sanitation as a business – the poor will have to wait (sanitationupdates.wordpress.com)
• Water and Sanitation Seek Rightful Place in Post-2015 Agenda (ipsnews.net)
• WEDC & WSP online learning course – Rural Sanitation at Scale (washlink.wordpress.com)

When Sanitation Does Not Have Clear Institutional Home or Accountability, Progress Lags: UN Deputy Secretary-General

Deputy Secretary-General DSG/SM/661 DEV/2984

When Sanitation Does Not Have Clear Institutional Home or Accountability, Progress Lags, UN Deputy Secretary-General Tells High-level Panel

——PRESS RELEASE——-

Following are UN Deputy Secretary-General Jan Eliasson’s remarks, as prepared for delivery, at a high-level panel on investing in sanitation, in Washington, D.C., 19 April:

I am pleased to see so many familiar faces from last year’s Sanitation and Water for All High Level Meeting.

Last year we talked about commitments.  Today I want to talk about action. But first let me ask a question recently directed to me by Kate Norgrove of Water Aid.  Have you ever been caught short and wondered where to find a toilet?  Probably a painful or embarrassing moment.  Let us then remember that 2.5 billion people do not have toilets!  This is their daily situation.

In New York, where I live, you will only find public toilets in Central Park.  It is a problem common to most towns and cities.

Recently I was in Addis Ababa.  I visited a small sanitation project called Feyenne in the town of Bishoftu, southeast of Addis.  Feyenne, which is supported by UNICEF [United Nations Children’s Fund] and the Oromia Bureau of Youth and Sports, is run by three young men who used to live on the streets.  In their small office was a chalk board with one word written on it.  “Sustainability”.

Their approach to sustainability was to tackle the sanitation problem as a business.  They had identified a need, and they had decided to fill it.  The concept was simple — to provide a safe, clean public facility at low cost near the main market.  With money from the toilet project, Feyenne has been able to open additional income generating activities that provide employment opportunities for vulnerable young people.  It is a model that is needed — and replicable.

Sanitation is the Millennium Development Goal on which we have made least progress.  Yet, it is among the most important.  Success on sanitation has a direct bearing on the other Goals, and it will be central to the post-2015 sustainable development agenda.  It is an issue of fundamental human dignity and the health of people and the environment.  Out of the 2.5 billion people without sanitation, more than 1 billion people defecate in the open.

That is why, last month, I launched a call to action for sanitation on behalf of the United Nations Secretary-General.  The objective is to galvanize major players to do more by building on two key ongoing initiatives — the United Nations General Assembly Sanitation Drive and the Sanitation and Water for All partnership.  The Sanitation Drive calls on all Member States to intensify efforts and focuses on communication and advocacy.  It is essential to get people to think about and openly discuss sanitation and open defecation.  We need to break the taboos.

The other initiative, Sanitation and Water for All, has over 91 global partners.  Last year I moderated the second Sanitation and Water for All High Level Meeting held here.  More than 50 ministers attended and some 400 commitments were tabled.  In June, we will have the results of these commitments, with a full report next year.  Heads of State, members of Government and other actors need to know what has been achieved and what remains to be done.

We have already seen the results of some of these commitments.  For example, in Ethiopia, the Government has endorsed a unified water supply, Sanitation and Hygiene Monitoring and Evaluation Framework.  And in Madagascar the Government has created a Directorate of Sanitation.  Someone is made responsible.

That is one of the problems that has been holding back progress.  Sanitation often does not have a clear institutional home or clear accountability.  In 2014, UNICEF and the World Bank will convene the third Sanitation and Water for All High Level Meeting.  I look forward to registering progress and new commitments.

There are three things we can do to speed up progress on sanitation.  First, we can scale up the projects that work.  Simple, affordable action has already proved its worth.  Between 1990 and 2010, about 1.8 billion people gained access to sanitation — a significant achievement.  Many countries have tackled this problem within a generation.  They have shown that we can achieve our targets.

Second, we must speed up the elimination of open defecation — country by country, community by community, family by family.  We need to ensure that everyone has access to a clean and safe toilet.  We need to change attitudes and generate demand.  We need to talk about the problem, not turn our heads.

And finally, we need to strengthen cooperation and boost investment.  The cost of poor sanitation can be counted both in human lives and lost productivity.  According to a study undertaken for the Water and Sanitation Programme and the World Bank, inadequate sanitation costs the Indian economy an estimated $53.8 billion a year, equivalent to 6.4 per cent of GDP [gross domestic product].  On the other hand, we know that every dollar spent on water and sanitation can bring a five-fold return.  The economic benefits for developing countries are estimated at $260 billion a year.

The public sector has major stake to play.  But, the private sector also has a major stake.  There is a considerable market — millions of customers need an essential service.  Opportunities abound for everyone from multinationals to local entrepreneurs.  If we all do our part, we can achieve substantial results.  So, let us commit now to provide adequate sanitation and safe water for all and stop open defecation — so that women and girls can live with dignity; so that our children can survive and communities can thrive.

Investing in sanitation is a win-win proposition — ensuring that millions of people can live productive lives, the Millennium Development Goals can be achieved and healthy societies can be built.  There are only winners if we all mobilize.  Nobody can do everything — but everybody can do something.  Thank you.  

source …

video of his speech:“A Matter of Life: Investing in Sanitation – a Conversation with Jan Eliasson, Tony Lake, & Global Decision-Makers”

 

Related articles

• Jan Eliasson: Everyone Needs a Place to Go (huffingtonpost.com)
• Pakistan pays heavily for poor sanitation, says UN (dawn.com)
• U.N.: Global lack of toilet, latrine access a “silent disaster” (cbsnews.com)
• New Sanitation Figures Compete with Official UN Statistics: 6 in 10 Lack Proper Facilities (sanitationupdates.wordpress.com)
• UN seeks to end toilet ‘taboo’ (dawn.com)

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

Related articles

• UNICEF Report Highlights India’s Water Management Woes (circleofblue.org)
• SANITATION: Urban water woes (irinnews.org)
• From Water Problems to Water Solutions (slideshare.net)
• Lack of toilets, clean water costs world $260 bln a year – Liberian president (trust.org)

“Sewage Fed Biorefineries A Foundation for Urban Sustainability”

This a great TEDX by Kartik Chandran at TEDxColumbiaEngineering

Redefining the model for urban sewage treatment / sanitation  addressing

Waste recover-  Key Chemicals

Energy Recovery

Sustainability

From the Youtube Site

“Kartik Chandran is an Environmental Engineer. He is currently Associate Professor of Earth and Environmental Engineering at Columbia University, where he leads the Columbia University Biomolecular Environmental Science program and the Wastewater Treatment and Climate Change program. Under his stewardship, the research directions of biological wastewater treatment and biological nitrogen removal were established for the first time ever in the history of Columbia University. Chandran is keenly interested in developing novel models for sustainable sanitation and wastewater treatment, with a specific focus on managing the global nitrogen cycle (one of the grand challenges of the National Academy of Engineering) and linking it to the carbon cycle, the water cycle and the energy cycle. Chandran has received, among other awards, the NSF CAREER award and the Paul Busch Award. He was the recipient of a 2007 National Academies of Science Fellowship and a guest professorship at the Delft University of Technology. In 2011, Chandran began implementing a novel model for sanitation in Africa, supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. He also serves on the Board of Trustees of the Water Environment Federation.”

Related articles

• Gresham’s wastewater treatment plant leading way in power production, alternative energies (oregonlive.com)
• India flush with wastewater treatment opportunities (eco-business.com)
• 300 swimming pools of partly treated sewage dumped into the Thames River (lfpress.com)
• Ivy League Brains Figure Out How to Make Biodegradable Plastic from Greenhouse Gases (cleantechnica.com)
• Sewage-powered hydrogen fueling station opens in CA (reviews.cnet.com)