Ecosan Systems
Ecosan systems should prevent disease, protect the environment and recover nutrients, be acceptableA sanitation system must be aesthetically inoffensive and consistent with cultural and social values, affordableA sanitation system must be accessible to the world's poorest people, and simpleA sanitation system must be robust enough to be easily maintained with the limitations of the local technical capacity, institutional framework, and economic resources.
Most of the plant nutrients in human excreta are found in the urine. Besides, human faeces, not urine, are responsible for most diseases spread by human excreta. There are different ways to recover the resources from urine: diversionDiversion is when the urine is diverted away from the faeces; they are never mixed with each other, separationSeparation is when urine and faeces are mixed together then separated from each other, and combined processingIn combined processing, urine and faeces are mixed together, processed together and their resource value are captured together. Read more...
Although faeces contain fewer nutrients than urine, they are a valuable soil conditioner. Treated faeces may be applied to the soil to increase the organic matter content, improve water holding capacity and increase the availability of nutrients. It also helps to maintain a healthy population of beneficial soil organisms that actually protect plants from soil-borne diseases.
To eliminate the risk of disease transmission, faeces must be stored during a long time, dehydrated, heated, exposed to sunlight or the pH must be increased. The two main technical approaches are dehydrationWhen something is dehydrated, all the water is removed from it. In a dehydrating toilet, the contents of the processing vault are dried with the help of heat, ventilation and the addition of dry material, and decompositionComposting is a biological process in which, under controlled conditions, bacteria, worms and other types of organisms break down organic substances to make humus, a rich, stable medium in which roots thrive. Read more...
