A new approach to nationwide sanitation planning for developing countries: Case study of Indonesia

Global occurrence of SARS-CoV-2 in environmental aquatic matrices and its implications for sanitation and vulnerabilities in Brazil and developing countries

This paper includes a systematic review of the SARS-CoV-2 occurrence in environmental aquatic matrices and a critical sanitation analysis. We discussed the interconnection of sanitation services (wastewater, water supply, solid waste, and stormwater drainage) functioning as an important network for controlling the spread of SARS-CoV-2 in waters. We collected 98 studies containing data of the SARS-CoV-2 occurrence in aquatic matrices around the world, of which 40% were from developing countries. Alongside a significant number of people infected by the virus, developing countries face socioeconomic deficiencies and insufficient public investment in infrastructure. Therefore, our study focused on highlighting solutions to provide sanitation in developing countries, considering the virus control in waters by disinfection techniques and sanitary measures, including alternatives for the vulnerable communities. The need for multilateral efforts to improve the universal coverage of sanitation services demands urgent attention in a pandemic scenario.

Contextual and psychological factors influencing open defecation free status: an exploratory qualitative study in rural South Western Uganda

INTRODUCTION

Achieving the Open defecation free (ODF) status remains a major challenge in Uganda, yet it contributes significantly to child health improvement. Literature on social, cultural and behavioral aspects that influence the ODF status in rural Uganda is limited. The study therefore, explored perceived factors influencing the ODF status in rural South Western Uganda.

METHODS

An exploratory study employing qualitative techniques and based on deductive analysis between month December 2020 and January 2021 was conducted. Seven Focus Group Discussions (FGDs and three Key Informant Interviews (KIs) were conducted in Kabale District, southwestern Uganda. Focus Group Discussion participants were mothers and fathers having children of 2 years and below while KIIs included local community leaders and health extension workers. Data was analyzed using a categorization matrix derived from the Risks, Attitudes, Norms, Abilities, and Self-regulation (RANAS) model which is comprised of contextual and psychological factors. Text was further categorized into high and low statements for attainment of ODF status.

RESULTS

The contextual factors influencing the Open Defecation Free status behavior included; farming activities far from home, financial constraints, rainy seasons, collapsible soft soils, and alcohol use. Psychological factors influencing ODF status included; perceived health risk for typhoid disease, low perceived severity for lack of ODF components, negative attitude of less value attached to ODF components, and a feeling of time wastage practicing ODF status behavior. The perception that the community has the ability to attain the ODF status was high. Although, the capability to maintain ODF was low when it comes to replacement of ODF component if stolen or destroyed.

CONCLUSION

Open Defecation Free status is influenced by contextual and psychological factors. Therefore, it's crucial for sanitation promotors to always identify such context specific factors in order to design sanitation and hygiene promotion interventions to address the ODF free status related challenges.

To centralize or to decentralize? A systematic framework for optimizing rural wastewater treatment planning

Untreated rural sewage seriously affects the universal access to clean water of rural residents. The lack of decision-support tools in rural sewage treatment (RuST) planning makes it difficult for RuST system to achieve the expected results and is not conducive to the optimal allocation of limited funds. Hence, there is an urgent need to develop a decision-support framework for large-scale RuST planning. For the first time, RuST planning decision-support framework was developed using divide-and-conquer strategy based on rural residents' spatial pattern (RESP) and the optimal pattern of RuST. This framework can be transferred to other countries/regions easily by correcting RESP dataset according to the spatial and environmental characteristics. We confirmed that the variation of RESP made the ideal RuST pattern varied significantly under different topography. And community-based pattern could be the optimal pattern for large-scale RuST planning, when spatial obstacle and RESP were fully considered. The price of onsite sewage treatment facility is the most significant factor for RuST planning. In our selected case, requited onsite facility accounted for 65.51%. For the total investment, the cost of sewer systems accounted for 56.01%, and the average investment in plains, hills, platforms and mountains was 1401, 1803, 1903 and 1859 USD/household, respectively. We expect this research could provide reference for RuST planning in other developing countries/regions all around the world.

Resource-Efficient Characterisation of Pit Latrine Sludge for Use in Agriculture

Resource recovery through reuse of by-products of the sanitation chain presents a great potential towards ensuring universal access to safely managed sanitation. Many developing countries are faced with uncertainty over public and environmental health concerns associated with use of faecal sludge in agriculture. Due to resource constraints, limited data exists on the characteristics of faecal sludge to inform proper and safe use in agriculture. Despite predictive characterisation being demonstrated to be a resource-efficient approach to generate data in other fields, its application in agricultural resource recovery from faecal sludge is lacking in the literature. This paper explored predictive modelling as a less resource-intensive approach for characterisation of nutrients and pathogens in faecal sludge. Specifically, it investigated the extent to which gravimetric parameters could predict nutrients and pathogens in pit latrine sludge from informal settlements in the cities of Malawi. The study explored predictive models to estimate total ammoniacal nitrogen (TAN), total phosphorus (TP), E.coli and helminth eggs from gravimetric parameters (total solids [TS] and total volatile solids [TVS]) in pit latrine sludge. The models developed in the study allow substantially reliable estimation of TAN (R2pred = 75.4%) and TP (R2pred = 78.2%); they also provide moderately reliable predictions for E.coli (R2pred = 69.1%) and helminth eggs (R2pred = 74.3%) from total solids. Since total solids are easy and inexpensive to measure, the models present an option that can reduce resource requirement for characterisation of pit latrine sludge for informed decision-making when using pit latrine sludge in agriculture. In the absence of data on faecal sludge characteristics at the national level, the models provide a starting point for estimation of pathogens and nutrients in sludge for agricultural use. However, stepwise refinement of the models needs to be done through their validation for different types of sludge and inclusion of spatially available demographic, technical and environmental (SPA-DET) data.

Overcoming open defecation for healthier environment in case of Pakistan

With the growing awareness of the linkage among open defecation (OD), environment, and health, it is important to understand the factors responsible for OD. It is a necessary step toward developing a strategy to end open defecation for ensuring a better environment and human health. There is no such study available for Pakistan. The study, therefore, aims to bridge this gap. Using household data of Pakistan Demographic and Health Survey (PDHS) 2017-2018, an association of OD with potential predictors, analysis of variance, and a logistic regression model are employed to develop the evidence. The results suggest that place of residence, education, poverty status, social norms, geopolitical regions, and living space significantly predict the OD behavior in Pakistan. This study recommends two things: first is to facilitate the households and communities to own latrines, second is to change the behavior through intervention. However, political commitment and effective administration will be key to ascertain ending OD.

A composite indicator approach to assess the sustainability and resilience of wastewater management alternatives

Evaluating the sustainability of wastewater management alternatives is a challenging task. This paper proposes an innovative methodology to assess and compare the sustainability of four wastewater management alternatives: a) centralised water resource recovery facility (WRRF) based on activated sludge (AS); b) centralised WRRF with membrane bioreactors (MBR); c) decentralised WRRFs with upflow anaerobic sludge blanket reactors and trickling filters; d) centralised-decentralised hybrid system. In doing so, a composite indicator embracing total annual equivalent costs, carbon emission intensity, eutrophication and resilience (based on robustness and rapidity metrics) was developed using the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) method. The results show that decentralised and hybrid systems contribute less to carbon emission and eutrophication because of energy and fertilizer harvest and with a trade-off of higher costs of 7-17% than the ones of AS and MBR. In addition, decentralised and hybrid systems are more resilient, contributing to lower environmental impacts facing natural disasters. Based on the weights obtained by AHP, the decentralised alternative appears to be the most sustainable option due to its best performance in terms of carbon emission intensity and resilience. By contrast, the MBR alternative appeared the least sustainable evaluated wastewater management alternative. However, this alternative is sustainable option when the eutrophication criterion is heavily prioritized. The proposed approach contributes to the selection of the most sustainable wastewater management alternative from a holistic perspective.

Review of drivers and barriers of water and sanitation policies for urban informal settlements in low-income and middle-income countries

This study examined drivers and barriers of water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) policies in urban informal settlements in low and middle-income countries. We conducted a search of peer-reviewed and grey literature published between January 2000 and April 2018. We organized evidence into six domains of drivers and barriers: economic, spatial, social, institutional, political, and informational. Key drivers included donor prioritization and collective action, while key barriers included social exclusion, lack of land or dwelling tenure status, the political economy of decision-making, and insufficient data. Ensuring responsive water and sanitation policies for informal settlements will require inter-disciplinary collaboration and both top-down and bottom-up approaches.

Fate of three bioluminescent pathogenic bacteria fed through a cascade of urine microbial fuel cells

Microbial fuel cell (MFC) technology is currently gaining recognition as one of the most promising bioenergy technologies of the future. One aspect of this technology that has received little attention is the disinfection of effluents and the fate of pathogenic organisms that find their way into the waste stream. In this study, three independent trials were carried out to evaluate the fate of three bioluminescent pathogenic bacteria (Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphylococcus aureus) introduced into the anodic chamber of a urine-fed cascade of 9 MFCs with matured, electroactive biofilms. These are common examples of enteric human pathogens, which could contaminate urine or waste streams. The results showed that the average power generation in the closed circuit cascade reached 754 ± 16 µW, with an average pathogen log-fold reduction of 6.24 ± 0.63 compared to 2.01 ± 0.26 for the open circuit cascade for all three pathogens. The results suggest that the bio-electrochemical reactions associated with electricity generation were the primary driving force for the inactivation of the introduced pathogens. These findings show that pathogenic organisms introduced into waste streams could be inactivated by the power-generating process within the MFC cascade system, thereby preventing propagation and thus rendering the effluent safer for possible reuse.

Exploring the determinants of open defecation in Nigeria using demographic and health survey data

There is increasing global attention to the threats of open defecation (OD) to human health and dignity, and the environment. With at least a quarter of Nigerians (25.1%) or 46 million people practicing OD in 2015, Nigeria ranks third in the world in OD prevalence after India and China. This study explores the socio-economic, demographic and geographic factors that influence and determine the practice of OD among Nigerian households. Data was obtained from 2013 Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey and analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. The results indicate that about 32% of Nigerian households, 8% in urban areas and 24% in rural areas, practiced OD in 2013. The practice is significantly influenced (p < 0.001) by households' place of residence (χ2 (1) = 2126.2), geo-political region (χ2 (5) = 1962.6) and wealth index (χ2 (4) = 4622.7), as well as by household head's education level (χ2 (3) = 1253.3), ethnicity (χ2 (3) = 1926.2) and gender (t = -7.1992). The article also discusses the implications of the findings for environmental and public health and recommends that facilitating ownership of latrines by households and communities, and behavioral change interventions are necessary towards substantially reducing or eliminating OD in Nigeria.

Early testing of new sanitation technology for urban slums: The case of the Blue Diversion Toilet

The toilets used most in informal urban settlements have detrimental consequences for the environment and human health due to the lack of proper collection and treatment of toilet waste. Concepts for safe, sustainable and affordable sanitation systems exist, but their feasibility and acceptance have to be investigated at an early stage of development, which is difficult due to the high costs of building working models. In this paper, we present an approach to estimate acceptance in a valid and representative form with only one working model, and apply it to test an innovative zero-emission toilet with recycling of wash water. Four basic principles were specified for investigation and nine hypotheses formulated to test the feasibility and acceptance of these principles: source separation of urine and feces with subsequent collection for resource recovery; provision of wash water in a separate cycle with on-site recovery through a membrane bioreactor; a convenient and attractive overall design; and a financially sustainable business plan. In Kampala (Uganda), in 2013, data was collected from 22 regular users, 308 one-time users and a representative sample of 1538 participants. Qualitative data was collected from the users, who evaluated their likes, perceived benefits, social norms and expected ease of use based on verbal and visual information. Most of the hypotheses were confirmed, indicating the feasibility and acceptance of the basic principles. Source separation and on-site water recovery were found to be feasible and accepted, provided users can be convinced that the emptying service and water recovery process work reliably. In the survey, the toilet was evaluated favorably and 51% of the participants agreed to be placed on a bogus waiting list. However, some design challenges were revealed, such as the size of the toilet, hiding feces from view and improving the separation of urine and water.

Emerging Concern from Short-Term Textile Leaching: A Preliminary Ecotoxicological Survey

Textile dyes and their residues gained growing attention worldwide. Textile industry is a strong water consumer potentially releasing xenobiotics from washing and rinsing procedures during finishing processes. On a decentralised basis, also final consumers generate textile waste streams. Thus, a procedure simulating home washing with tap water screened cotton textiles leachates (n = 28) considering physico-chemical (COD, BOD₅, and UV absorbance) and ecotoxicological data (Daphnia magna, Pseudokirchneriella subcapitata and Lepidium sativum). Results evidenced that: (i) leachates presented low biodegradability levels; (ii) toxicity in more than half leachates presented slight acute or acute effects; (iii) the remaining leachates presented "no effect" suggesting the use of green dyes/additives, and/or well established finishing processes; (iv) no specific correlations were found between traditional physico-chemical and ecotoxicological data. Further investigations will be necessary to identify textile residues, and their potential interactions with simulated human sweat in order to evidence potential adverse effects on human health.