Logistic Aspects of Ecological Sanitation in Urban Areas

M. Slob (2005)

Introduction

In urban areas reuse of excreta on-site is not always possible. As experiences in urban areas are still quite limited, there is a knowledge gap concerning the logistics of getting the matter from households to central treatment facilities and/or reuse locations. This study has therefore worked out a transport system for the collection and transport of excreta from the households in a specific urban community to farmers outside that specific city. The research took place in a low-income area of Delhi, Saboli.

The research question of this research was:
What is an effective and efficient system to transport excreta from households to central treatment locations in a low-income area (Saboli) in Delhi, India?

Saboli is quite similar to many densely populated urban areas in Delhi and other cities in developing countries.

Methods

The Integrated Sustainable Waste Management concept served as the framework for the development of the criteria for a good transport system.

Conclusions in short

• Urine collection, collection with a tractor trolley combination equipped with a pump is the most effective and efficient system for large-scale collection.
• For faeces collection, the use of a household double vault system and collection with a simple tricycle is advised.
• The collectors are in favour as the working conditions will be much better than the manual scavenging they have done.
• The farmers see potential in urine and faeces as fertilizer and want to experiment with it.
• The users easily relate to the production and reuse of dried faeces, but cannot easily relate to urine as fertilizer.
• As for the costs of the transport itself, the yearly costs for faeces are very low considering the willingness to pay.
• The costs for urine transport are several times higher. When flushing water is added the costs might be too high for the farmers and households to bear, requiring outside subsidy.

All in all EcoSan can be viable in Saboli when subsidy is provided for the reconstruction of the household toilet systems and when the fertilizer costs for the farmers are lower compared to their current fertilizer costs. Suggestions are also given how the storage at the household can be designed and how storage and application at the farmer level can be realised in a low-cost way.

Finally, it was concluded that the steps and rational of thinking in this research can serve as a guideline for different regions and settings. Several recommendations and issues for further research have been listed.

The document is split into 4 files

• CS_ES log in_ebook ch 1_2.pdf
• CS_ES log in_ebook ch 3_6.pdf
• CS_ES log in_ebook ch 7_9.pdf
• CS_ES log in_ebook ref_annexes.pdf

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