Title The Ecosan Source Book, Toolbox and Data Sheets - GTZ Information Support for Ecological Sanitation Keywords Author(s) Ecological sanitation, ecosan technology data sheets, ecosan project data sheets, ecosan planning tools Christine Werner, Patrick Bracken, Florian Klingel, Sonny Syahril Address Ecosan Project, Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ) GmbH, Dag-Hammarskjöld-Weg 1-5 65726 Eschborn, Germany Telephone +49 6196 79 4221 Fax +49 6196 79 804221 Mobile +49 151 1426 4689 E-mail Short CV for Introduction Purposes ( 100 words max) christine.werner@gtz.de personal data: born 28.8.1959, married, 2 children (8 and 2 years) professional background: civil engineer professional experience: 19 years of professional experience in water supply, solid waste management and sanitation, hereof 5 years in Bujumbura, as a laboratory engineer at the University of Burundi, 8 years as a project engineer in a german consulting company and 6 years as a planning officer and project team leader in the Germen Technical Cooperation Agency GTZ present position: project team leader of the supraregional GTZ ecosan-project Photograph attached ( jpg)
Introduction Despite the encouraging increase in the number of ecosan projects being planned and implemented around the world in recent years, there remains a very large information gap between the information needs of decision makers, practitioners and other stakeholders in sanitation projects and the actual information currently available. There is a need to provide appropriate information regarding ecological sanitation and the planning and implementation of ecosan systems to increase the awareness of the alternative sanitation options available and to design, implement and operate an ecological sanitation solution. This has been recognised by many organisations working at national and international level, and the past year has seen a variety of guidelines, for example, from the SIDA supported EcoSanRes programme and the Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council whilst the World Bank Water and Sanitation Programme has provided a review of ecological sanitation technologies in East and Southern Africa. Other international organisations are currently preparing publications on education and research for ecosan (UNESCO), the public health benefits and risks of safely using greywater and excreta (WHO), and a handbook on ecosan (IWA) The GTZ ecosan sector project has been co-operating with many of these organisations and has contributed to several of these recent and upcoming publications. Additionally, work has been continuing on an ecological sanitation source book and accompanying tool box for ecosan practitioners, as well as on a series of data sheets on ecosan technology modules and exemplary ecosan projects. Results from ecological sanitation projects from around the world have highlighted the fact that there is still relatively little experience regarding how projects may best be planned and implemented to contribute to their success, particularly in urban settings and on a larger scale. The ecosan source book is therefore aimed at providing decision makers, planners, sanitary professionals, project initiators and other stakeholder groups with basic information and a household centred methodology for planning and implementing ecological sanitation projects. The accompanying toolbox aims to provide an overview of, and direct access to, different field tested tools currently available for awareness raising, planning, decision making, implementation and operation which may help them do this. With the increasing number and variety of ecological sanitation projects, it has become more difficult to follow recent developments and to have an overview of current trends and practices around the world. To this end, the GTZ has elaborated data sheets looking at specific ecosan technology modules as well as at interesting ecosan case studies from around the world. Each ecosan technical data sheet provides an outline and detailed technical information on a particular technological module that can be employed within an ecosan system, whilst the project data sheets present examples of ecological sanitation systems that are currently being implemented. The ecosan source book and toolbox for practitioners A study carried out by the GTZ in 2003 highlighted the severe lack of material available to provide information, raise awareness and ensure participation in ecological sanitation projects. This lead to the formation of an international working group to address this problem and to work beginning on an ecological sanitation source book, with an integrated tool box, for decision makers, planners, practitioners and other stakeholders. Two drafts of the ecosan source book and tool-box have now been reviewed by an international working group and a completed version is due to be published via internet later this year. Both the source book and the accompanying tool box are based on the fact that in practice ecological sanitation requires a multi-disciplinary approach (involving activities in hygiene, water supply and sanitation, resource conservation, environmental protection, urban planning, agriculture, food-security, small business promotion and many others depending on circumstances and context). The stakeholders involved, their tasks and their information needs therefore differ from project to project. The information presented in the ecosan source
book and toolbox therefore aims to address the needs and interests of a wide range of stakeholders in the preparation and implementation of ecological sanitation projects. The source book and toolbox aim to provide answers to basic questions such as, what exactly is ecosan? What types of ecosan projects are there? What role does participation have to play in such projects? How can these projects be prepared and implemented? Who are the relevant stakeholders in the different types of ecological sanitation projects and what may their roles be? and what tools are currently available to assist those working in ecological sanitation? The first part of the source book is aimed at all those stakeholders with little or no knowledge of ecosan. This section can be used as an ecosan primer. It provides information on the current world water and sanitation crises and how this is aggravated by current conventional sanitation practices. The principles and advantages of ecological sanitation are clearly presented, and a comparative analysis with conventional systems is made. This primer section also presents current international thinking in sanitation including the four Bellagio Principles. These principles were the conclusion of a group of experts from a wide range of international organisations who called for a radical overhaul of conventional sanitation policies and practices world-wide in 2000. The Bellagio Principles place human dignity at the centre of a new approach to sanitation, which should be responsive and accountable to local and national needs and demands, whilst guaranteeing the participation of all stakeholders in decision making. They also call for the recognition of waste as a resource and for its holistic management, with the level of problem solving for sanitation being kept at the minimum practicable level. The primer also gives an idea of the types of ecological sanitation that the GTZ team have encountered in their work which have been generalised to give four ecosan project archetypes. These are: rural upgrading, urban upgrading, new urban development areas and non-residential buildings (e.g. schools, tourist attractions). These archetypes are later used in the source book to help try and provide a general yet comprehensive stakeholder analysis for each of the project types. The second part of the source book provides decision makers, planners and other stakeholders with a participatory planning, preparation and implementation guide for ecological sanitation projects, based on the Bellagio Principles and Household Centred Environmental Sanitation (HCES) approach (itself a guide on how to implement the Bellagio Principles). One of the key elements of the HCES is the necessity for the users to make an informed choice of sanitation system that they feel would work best for them this has also been adopted as a central philosophy of the planning guide given in the ecosan source book. This guide breaks the entire process down into a series of 10-steps that move gradually from the awareness raising phase through to the implementation and operation of the ecosanitation system (see Figure 1). It is recognised in the guide that the process itself will most likely not be linear, but rather a series of iterative loops repeating certain steps, for example the identification of sanitation options may have to be repeated several times as users fine tune their expectations and the feasibility of the system application is studied The actions and expected outputs of each step are described, and a general description of issues or problem that may arise during each step is also given.
Figure 1: The 10-step participatory ecosan preparation, planning and implementation process This section of the source book also contains a detailed analysis and description of the stakeholders that may be implicated in ecosan projects and looks at what their roles might be throughout the preparation, planning and implementation process for the four ecosan project archetypes. The final section of the source book is devoted to the toolbox for ecosan projects and is aimed at practitioners in the field, providing them with a range of different tools that they can use at different stages of project implementation. The toolbox aims to provide support material, methodologies and information to assist in the process of preparing, planning and implementing a participatory ecosan project. For this reason tools have been suggested for each of the steps described in the 10-step process. It contains a broad spectrum of field-tested instruments that have been, or are being, used in ecological sanitation projects. As ecosan represents a holistic approach to closing the nutrient loop between sanitation and agriculture, a very wide range of tools are included. These range from awareness raising materials for sanitation and hygiene, to information and guidelines for safe agricultural reuse, technical data sheets, design and planning tools, participatory methodologies, education materials, project examples, monitoring and evaluation methodologies and many other instruments that may be useful in project implementation. The tool box also contains tools that have been specifically developed in the course of the GTZ pilot projects. The tool box was originally drawn up as a simple table with only a few tools. It has since been circulated and improved upon considerably with input from practitioners from around the world and with our own experience. This has also served to highlight what tools still need to be developed for ecosan. It is intended to publish the tool box via the GTZ ecosan internet site either as a downloadable excel table, or as an interactive data base to make it as user friendly as possible. The tool box is a work in progress, and we would welcome any contributions from individuals, organisation or institutions. ecosan data sheets An further contribution by the GTZ project to ecosan information management is the series of data sheets it has been working on, some of which have been recently published on our home-page (http://www2.gtz.de/ecosan/). Even prior to publication there has been a great
demand for these data sheets. Two types of sheet have been developed. The first, the data sheets for ecosan projects, present summarised overviews (4-5 pages) of specific, complete ecological sanitation systems from around the world, whilst the second, the technical data sheets for ecosan components, contain detailed information on specific, usually modular, technologies that can be employed as part of an ecosan system. Data sheets for ecosan projects The data sheets for ecosan projects present concise information on projects around the world where ecosan concepts have been implemented successfully. They cover projects from both developing and industrialised countries, high and low tech systems, rural and urban locations, pilot and large scale projects, and projects in various cultural settings. They demonstrate the wide range of possible fields of application for ecosan systems. The project data sheets therefore represent a valuable tool for information and promotion activities. The data sheets contain in a very compact form all relevant technical, organisational, and financial data on the project, as well as a description of particular experience, problems and lessons learned. As long-term experience is still unavailable for many ecosan technologies, experience from reference projects often constitutes the only basis for technology selection and system design. The ecosan project data sheets make that valuable experience available to planners and engineers. For easy understanding and to facilitate comparison between projects, the main features of a project are visualised in the header of every sheet (see fig. 1). All employed technologies and reuse schemes are represented clearly in a matrix of different material streams (horizontally: solid bio-waste, faeces, urine, greywater and rainwater) and the different steps in a material flow cycle (vertically: collection, treatment, and utilisation). Figure 2: Screenshot of an ecosan project data sheet Following the introductory header, a box summarises all relevant general data such as the type of project, project period, project scale, planning institution, executing institution and supporting agency. The text body covers information on project objectives, local and general conditions, technologies applied, types of reuse, project history, costs, operation and maintenance, design information and technical specifications, practical experience and lesson learned, available documents and references and contact details of involved
institutions, organisations and individuals. Photos and drawings complement the information, making the data sheets easy and pleasant to read. The following ecosan project data sheets have been published, or will be published soon, while further sheets will be added regularly: Germany, Vacuum Sewerage and Greywater Recycling Office Building Ostarkade of the KfW Bankengruppe, Frankfurt am Main Germany Germany, Innovative Wastawater Management for Rural Areas Pilot and Research Project Lambertsmuehle Burscheid Germany, Ecological Settlement Allermoehe, Neu Allermoehe Hamburg Germany, Ecological Housing Estate Luebeck-Flintenbreite, Luebeck Germany, Oeko-Technik-Park, Hanover Mali, Ecosan Pilot Installations, Koulikoro Sweden, Nutrient Recycling in Gebers Collective Housing Project, Orhem Romania, Ecosan School Toilets, Garla Mare China, Upscaling of dry sanitation, Guangxi Province Mexico, TepozEco Urban Ecosan Pilot Program Syria, Constructed Wetland Haran-Al-Awamied, Syria Germany, Biogas-Ecosan Project Waldmichelsbacherhof, Bessenbach Jordania, Use of reclaimed water in the Jordan Valley China, Ecosan in Kunming Ecuador, Constructed Wetlands, Sabiango Egypt, Humification of Sewage Sludge, Elminia and Nawag The GTZ-ecosan team does not intend to limit the ecosan project data sheets to projects where GTZ has been involved, but also wants to give other institutions or individuals the opportunity to publish their project experience within data sheets series. A template file for ecosan project data sheets is provided on www.gtz.de/ecosan, where project information can be introduced by any interested party and sent to the GTZ ecosan team for publication on the project s web-site. Your contribution to extend the list of data sheets for ecosan projects is very welcome! Technical data sheets for ecosan components Ecological sanitation concepts generally tailor sanitary systems to fit the needs of social, economic and environmental sustainability in a given context. Therefore a wide range of technologies can, and currently is, being used in ecological sanitation systems. Many technologies are already well established for classical wastewater projects, but have to be adapted to different framework conditions of an ecosan project. Other technologies are just being developed specifically for ecosan applications. In all cases, only little technical guidance exists so far for technology selection and design in ecosan projects. GTZ s technical data sheets for ecosan components are being developed to close this gap. They present technologies and reuse practices in a modular way. It is clearly defined for each module for which specific material streams and for which specific steps in the material flow cycle the module is particularly suitable. Fig 2 represents all technology modules on a material flow matrix. Each technology module is, or will be treated in detail in a corresponding technical data sheet.
solid biowaste faeces urine greywater rainwater collection Vacuum Sewerage Gravity Sewerage (conv. or small-bore, centr. or decentr.) Solid-Liquid Separation Urine diversion treatment Composting Toilet Biogas Digestors Composting Dehydration Toilet Storage Urine Processing Wastewater treatment (centralised or decentr.) Greywater - Separation Treatment Reuse Rainwater Harvesting - Catchment, Treatment, Use utilisation Soil conditionning with treated Excreta and Solid Biowaste Fertilizing with Urine Reuse of wastewater in agriculture, aquaculture, epuvalisation, etc. Figure 3: Technology modules available for the collection, treatment and reuse of different material flow streams The technical data sheets for ecosan components are arranged in two main sections; the general description (section A) and detailed information (section B) on different types of the described technology. Section A is introduced by a header containing the same material flow matrix as the data sheets for ecosan projects. This matrix visualises at the first glance the possible field of applications of the described technology (see fig.3). The following text of section A explains the basic principles of the technology, gives an overview on available technology types and indicates their main field of application and their limitations.
Figure 4: Screenshot of a technical data sheet for ecosan components Planners and engineers may use section A of the technical data sheets for a first screening and pre-selection of potentially suitable technologies for their specific project. Section A also represents a valuable information tool for the available technology options, e.g. to facilitate an informed choice within participatory planning processes. Section B presents detailed information on different sub-types of the described technology. For example, section B of the technical data sheet on dehydration toilets describes double vault dehydration toilets with urine diversion (B.1), single vault dehydration toilets with urine diversion (B.2), dehydration toilets without urine diversion (B.3), etc. For each technology type section B presents information on the functional principles, handling and maintenance, extent of application, economic data, design information, strengths and weaknesses, further available reading on the technology, manufacturers and some good practice examples. Section B of the technical data sheets on ecosan components is therefore directed to engineers and project designers for final technology selection and pre-design of facilities. The technical data sheets will first be published as a draft for public consultation. Any feedback received will be incorporated in the final version. The following technical data sheets are already available in draft form: Urine diversion Dehydration toilets Composting toilets Vacuum technology Anaerobic digestion/biogas. Any contribution for new technical data sheets or feedback and comments on published draft versions are very welcome! Conclusion There is a continuing need to provide high quality information to ecosan practitioners to assist them in their work. To date this has been achieved by a wide range of organisations co-operating and co-ordinating with each other to produce the needed material. The continuation of this co-operation will continue to benefit practitioners and should ensure the information keeps up with developments in the field. As a contribution to addressing the information deficit, the GTZ source book, toolbox and data sheet not only provides the decision makers and stakeholders in sanitation projects with information needed in the planning and implementation of ecosan project, but also the current developments and technological options in implementation of ecosan projects. However, with the rapid international developments in ecological sanitation there is a continuous need to update the information in these publications. To make the work more efficient the GTZ ecosan sector project calls on all interested parties to contribute to these publications. All input and feedback on these publications will be gratefully received.