Jennifer Molwantwa and Jay Bhagwan
Today, on World Toilet Day, we have to learn from the recent consequences of climate events, both floods and droughts, that disrupt a key element of modern civilisation and health – sanitation.
Many people in the circumstances highlight a water crisis, yet the issue of sanitation is downplayed.
The consequences of a long period of constipation is a bigger crisis as many of us, urban dwellers (who cannot practise open defecation), have come to realise in recent times.
Blessings to the “fire pools” and ponds which have helped us through the poop crisis, which has also been exacerbated recently due to the failure of infrastructure and the interruption in water supply.
On the back of the challenge and together with growing urbanisation, the water resource and availability continues to be a growing challenge.
From Johannesburg to San Francisco, to Delhi and Bangalore, there are examples in the developed and developing world that flushing is becoming a luxury we can no longer afford.
Not only does it take six to nine litres to flush the toilet, nearly 60% of water consumption is required to transport human waste away from the household. In many water-stressed environments, this is a huge growing problem and thus the sanitation time bomb is waiting to happen.
It is a sin that we flush our human waste in times of growing water constraints. The sector’s infrastructure-driven culture has blinded us from adopting and driving innovation and disruptive solutions.
We are locked into a 200-year-old “Victorian solution” and the lock-in to technology is one of the key factors which continues to impact the poor and undignified sanitation in urban and rural settlements, rural schools, clinics, hospitals and households. But this is not the only problem.
In recent times, we have seen reports of the disastrous consequences of the lack of operation and maintenance on modern sanitation systems – the sewers and wastewater treatment plants.
The recent Green Drop report and the status paints a bleak picture of the state of sanitation in South Africa.
Fixing the problem is going to take a lot of time and money.
Despite this, the political flavour continues to make promises that lead and perpetuate the situation some good examples to highlight are developments in Campbell, Ogies and Emfuleni, which are all water stressed, yet the option of full waterborne sewerage systems is chosen as the service delivery option.
Many also fail to meet the Green Drop status. There are so many examples to highlight that lead to this growing time bomb or the great poop explosion.
The sewage is flowing into our streets, streams and rivers.
Recognising that strides have been made in conventional waterborne sanitation and its societal impacts, these all come at a significant financial cost and energy requirement.
Climate change and associated stresses on water availability put added pressure on water resources available for flushing and transporting human wastes.
Today’s water crisis in the urban world is in reality a sanitation/sewerage crisis.
Thus, a new sanitation paradigm that challenges the current paradigm and technology disruption is urgently needed. That is, technology that can safely treat human excreta and matches user preferences without the need for sewers, and minimal reliance on external water, energy and one which has potential for beneficiation of waste streams.
Through innovation and smart supply chains, universal access can be achieved sustainably and link itself to water security and business opportunities.
This approach opens up opportunities for leapfrogging the solutions in growing urban and rural settlements of the developing world, as well as the water-starved developed world, reducing water consumption, carbon footprint and eliminating pollutant pathways.
New Water Efficient Sanitation Solutions (Wess) are needed. The next generation, climate-resilient, off-grid, innovative and novel technological options take into account available water and energy resources, user preferences and variable user populations.
They are able to contribute to revenue generation through beneficiation of waste products or reducing operational and maintenance costs.
Such interventions can potentially contribute to a 50% reduction in water used and supplied, possibly huge savings on capital associated with sewers and resource-intensive traditional wastewater treatment systems, reduction or elimination of pollution pathways, as well as a net reduction of non-revenue water as less water will be supplied.
The further benefit offered by Wess is the potential for a sustainable new sanitation circular economy, which offers opportunities for job creation and social upliftment, as well as industrialisation, localisation and a new services industry.
By entrenching Wess in sectoral regulation and policy, the negative impacts can be reduced and/or negated to facilitate unlocking bulk-related blocked projects. The practical ways to entrench Wess include making it part of the regulatory process, specifically pertaining to the proposed Water and Sanitation Services Norms and Standards, the standard water use licence application process and, ideally, leveraging the concepts through the Blue and Green Drop incentive-based regulation assessments.
The routes are viewed to be instrumental in fast-tracking bulk-related blocked greenfield development projects which are deadlocked in processes that disallow connections to municipality networks and wastewater treatment works, while unable to offer any alternative solutions to developers of new greenfield or major redevelopment of brownfield areas.
* Dr Molwantwa is the CEO at the Water Research Commission and Bhagwan is Executive Manager.
Cape Times