Closing the Loop between Sanitation and Food Security for the ´Base of the Pyramid´

Closing the Loop between Sanitation and Food Security for the ´Base of the Pyramid´
Mike BanosJune 09, 2011
American Chronicle

If consumers in the advanced Western economies have a hard time swallowing the idea of drinking water recycled from sewage, that may be nothing compared with what those in the Philippines have to go through when they consider eating foods raised from fertilizer recycled from human wastes.

But that´s exactly what a local foundation based in the boondocks of Mindanao has been advocating, and is now actively looking for "technology off-takers" who are willing to partner with them to literally ´close the loop´ by recycling human wastes as fertilizers for agricultural use in food production.

"There are more than 20 million Filipinos suffering the indignities and health hazards of not having access to proper sanitation," said Dan Lapid, president/executive director of the Center for Advanced Philippine Studies.

Water, Agroforestry, Nutrition and Development (WAND) Foundation, a local NGO that promotes social development via ecological sanitation (EcoSan), aims to close the gap in the country´s Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), particularly in the proportion of the population using an improved sanitation facility.

Dr. Elmer Sayre, in-house consultant, said WAND´s project aims to address the sanitation needs of the "base of the pyramid" (BoP): households too poor to buy their own toilets, those in remote areas not reached by government services, those with inadequate or no access to clean potable water, and those in conflict and/or disaster-hit areas.

National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) Region 10 statistics show a slow uptake in this regard especially in the rural areas where the proportion of the population using improved sanitation facilities over the last decade hardly approached the target reduction of 50 percent from 2000 (59%) to 2008 (69%).

"EcoSan promotes the safe reuse of human urine and feces as fertilizer, a key feature in sustainable sanitation. If distributed widely and used adequately, it can greatly advance our efforts in trying to meet our MDG target for sanitation by 2015."

Present sanitation systems based on the flush-pour toilet as the main technology operate on the premise that human wastes are better off disposed. But it is not effective in areas where there is no water or where septage is difficult to build as in slums or flooded zones.

In contrast, EcoSan has addressed sanitation issues in a sustainable manner by using dry or waterless toilets and recycling and reusing nutrients in human wastes in a hygienic way rather than disposing them where they can contaminate groundwater aquifers, rivers and seas, he noted.

Mr. Sayre´s passion for EcoSan started in 2007 when the concept of "closing the loop" was first introduced to him by the Mr. Peter Wychodil of the German Doctors for Developing Countries. Through this link, he gained more knowledge from Ms. Ulrike Lipkow, GTZ adviser to an ecosan project in the Visayas and Dr. Robert Holmer of the Peri-Urban Vegetable project in Cagayan de Oro City.

In 2008, WAND built some 17 double-vault ecosan toilets with fund support from the German Doctors for Developing Countries. Most of these were located in elementary schools in the Misamis Oriental towns of Initao, Libertad and Manticao.

But the P28, 000 cost of the double vault model proved too expensive for its target users. In 2009, Mr. Sayre won a research grant from the Science and Technology Innovations for the Base of the Pyramid in Southeast Asia (iBoP-Asia) to explore alternatives to the double-vault model.

Today, four EcoSan models are now available ranging from the "hanging" ecosan toilet for coastal communities; lightweight, mobile arborloo toilets for mountain areas; single-vault ecosan toilets suitable for households and deployment during conflicts or calamities; and urinals or EcoPees.

Mr. Sayre´s approach is to custom-design dry toilets that can be used by those living in urban slums, uplands, marshy areas, river settlements and coastal areas (flood-prone areas), and dry toilets for persons with disabilities and young children.

The designs were executed at the WAND demonstration area in Libertad and pilot-tested in Barrio Tuod in Manticao municipality, Barrio Oguis in Initao and a coastal area in Initao municipality.

"When I visited Mindanao last October I was very impressed with the high level of acceptance of the local community to the ecosan toilet especially on the beach side communities, the mountain community and the primary school," said Michael Brown, project manager of the Floating Community Waste Management Project in Cambodia. "Every user of the ecosan toilet was very happy with the toilet and spoke very positively about their experience with it."

Brown is a Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) Engineer by profession, and is also affiliated with Live & Learn Environmental Education, and Engineers Without Borders, Australia.

Local beneficiaries, who were mostly poor farmers and fishermen, were able to use, manage and take good care of the pilot units with little fuss. Most of the materials used in the designs were indigenous materials like bamboo, coconut palm fronds, wooden poles, gmelina wood and rattan baskets. Recycled drums, containers, black plastic sheets and heavy-duty Manila hemp sacks were sourced from a junk store in Cagayan de Oro.

The design of the dual chamber ecosan and hanging toilet for beach communities was very innovative, and made excellent use of local materials and skills for construction, noted Mr. Brown.

"The special ecosan bowl is produced by our local masons," Mr. Sayre said. "The result is a much cheaper ecosan toilet."

"Some of the biggest obstacles facing the ecosan design are misconceptions about the smell and dirtiness of the toilet," Mr. Brown noted. "WAND has done an excellent job educating the communities on the use of the toilets and the ecosan process, and users were happy to have the ecosan toilets in their homes, which in my experience is very challenging."

Now, with the proceeds of a grant from Grand Challenges Explorations (GCE), an initiative funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, WAND is conducting an innovative global health and development research project entitled "Ecological Sanitation for the Base of the Pyramid".

GCE funds scientists and researchers worldwide to explore ideas that can break the mold on persistent global health and development challenges. So far, Mr. Sayre is the only Filipino awarded a grant from GCE which is now on its sixth round. To win the grant, he had to demonstrate the viability and potential impact of EcoSan to address pressing issues in sanitation and family health technologies, one of five critical global heath and development areas.

"These grants are meant to spur new discoveries that could ultimately save millions of lives," said Chris Wilson, director of Global Health Discovery at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

"With this grant from GCE, we will explore the viability of low-cost dry toilets, using human waste in small-scale agri-silviculture by conducting crop trials, using vermi-composting and odor minimization, and mainstreaming ecological sanitation in local financing," Mr. Sayre said.

These ecological sanitation initiatives aim to help those at BoP by making available much needed fertilizer for plants to improve nutrition, income and biodiversity; prevent the spread of diseases due to open defecation; and prevent contamination of the water table and water sources. 

"WAND´s interventions are extraordinary because it does not simply look into the available means of intervention, but instead chose to very innovative, and groundly rooted to the spirit of making the lives of the depressed masses to be better-off than what they are," said Analiza Miso, project officer of Xavier University´s Sustainable Sanitation Center in Cagayan de Oro City. "I am so impressed how they touched the lives of people by boosting their dignity and self-respect."

Already, visitors from other countries have expressed their desire to bring home Mr. Sayre´s EcoSan system to their native lands.

"By my observation, I think your work is very effective waste recycling, since you use all the waste from ecosan for fertilizer," said Hong Sodaneath, environment officer for Live & Learn Foundation, Cambodia after a recent visit. "After I got back home to my country, I also want to make my project here to be like your place".

"We are now actively seeking industrial partners in corporate, local and regional government agencies who are interested in utilizing our EcoSan innovations for corporate social responsibility (CSR) projects and for compliance with mandatory requirements of regulatory agencies such as the rehabilitation of mined, quarried and logged over areas as well as providing the requirements of marginal residents displaced by large-scale mining and quarrying projects," Mr. Sayre added.