SANITATION
INDUSTRIALISING NEXT-GENERATION SANITATION TECHNOLOGIES Off-grid and non-sewer sanitation systems offer South Africa the opportunity to improve the way in which sanitation services are being delivered. By Akintunde Akinsete*
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t the current rate, it will be difficult, if not impossible, to meet the Department of Human Settlements, Water and Sanitation (DHWS) timeline for achieving Sustainable Developmental Goal 6 – ensuring availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all. Existing sanitation systems are proving inadequate in addressing current sanitation backlogs and it is imperative to explore promising emerging sanitation technologies.
Reinventing the toilet
The current sanitation paradigm is either a hole in the ground (pit latrines and their variants) or a flushing toilet connected to a sewer reticulation system. While both solutions have their merits and can meet the challenges of adequate sanitation, they can only do so if they are deployed in the proper context.
Innovation in the non-sewered sanitation space received a huge boost when the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) injected US$200 million (R3.4 billion) into the Reinventing the Toilet Challenge. The challenge invigorated innovation around sanitation worldwide, including in South Africa, bringing the best minds to bear in solving the world’s sanitation challenges. The outcome was a suite of promising solutions with the potential to change how sanitation is currently managed. To encourage buy-in and acceptance by the various sanitation stakeholders and, most importantly, the end-user, there is a need for rigorous field testing and the demonstration of these technologies in a local context.
Innovation in SA
The Water Research Commission (WRC), through its South African Sanitation Technology Enterprise Programme (Sastep), with funding from the BMGF
and the Department of Science and Innovation – and strong support from the DHWS – has been working with local and international sanitation innovators, entrepreneurs and manufacturers to commercialise innovative and much needed sanitation technologies and solutions in the South African market. The focus of the programme is to drive the local manufacturing and industrialisation of these technologies so that there are multiple effective technologies available to tackle South Africa’s sanitation deficiencies and backlog. There are several factors that may hinder the adoption of new technologies, namely policy, regulation, political will, cost, sunken cost (on the solution currently in use), and fear of the new and unknown, to name a few. Implementing agencies are often risk averse and more inclined to deploy familiar solutions, rather than embrace the new and unknown.
Enviro Loo’s dry sanitation solution can save up to 420 000 litres of water annually
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JULY /AUG UST 2020
