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Updated: Wednesday 22 June 2005

Input from End of the Pipe in CSD13

The aim of the series of meetings “At the End of the Pipe” was to accelerate the policy dialogue in The Netherlands towards an integrated urban sanitation planning to respond to the environmental challenges.

The participants formulated recommendations regarding a needed shift in the sanitation paradigm. These have been handed over to policy makers at the thirteenth session of the UN Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD 13, 11-22 April 2005) in New York. CSD 13 built upon the outcome of CSD-12 and aimed at taking policy decisions on practical measures and options to expedite implementation of commitments in water, sanitation and human settlements as contained in Agenda 21, the Programme for the Further Implementation of Agenda 21 and the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation, as well the Millennium Declaration.

Main conclusion of “At the End of the Pipe”, was that on the one-hand water shortages are increasing, while on the other hand the same water resources are used as means of transport for human excreta. Another aspect of the sanitation practices today is that the current systems contribute to the loss and destruction of nutrients, which are necessary for food production, in particular phosphorus.

The brochure ‘At the End of the Pipe: Insights, visions and ideas on a shift in the sanitation paradigm (April 2005), offers more information on the recommendations made during the meetings.

What has happened with the recommendations in the negotiations during CSD 13?

The decision adopted by the CSD contained, among others, the following practical measures to work out the implementation of the targets set with respect to the recommendations mentioned during “At the End of the Pipe”:

  • Establishing an institutional home for sanitation, prioritising sanitation in national development plans, and incorporating sanitation in integrated water resources management plans;
  • Promoting and supporting on-site sanitation infrastructure, especially in rural areas;

Among the measures to ensure access to culturally appropriate, low-cost and environmentally sound sanitation technologies among others the following measures are mentioned:

  • Promoting research, development and dissemination of information on low-cost sanitation options;
  • Investing in research and development projects including in applications of indigenous technologies and ecological sanitation and the providing of technology transfer for sanitation, waste water treatment, reuse and residuals management;

The promotion of wider re-use of wastewater and capture for use of other by-products of treatment processes as mentioned in the first summary, didn’t come up that detailed in the final text. However there is an opening created to work and explore new viable sanitation options. In one of the side events, Arno Rosemarin brought the issue of the depletion of phosphorous into the discussion, which gained a lot of interest.

Looking at the recommendations from “At the End of the Pipe” and the measures CSD has proposed WASTE sees it as a missed chance that the necessity for integration and coherence in the sanitation sector isn’t acknowledged. An integration that could have been provided by e.g. phosphor as the connecting factor for upcoming cycles. This missed chance will continue to be felt in the following CSDs. However, on the political level the view on sanitation is broadened in the sense that new options are welcomed. So we’re at the beginning of the cycle.

See also the website of the United Nations on CSD-13:
http://www.un.org/esa/sustdev/csd/csd13/csd13.htm