2 SuSan Design - Linking Agriculture and Sanitation.pdf

Emery Y. Sindani, Regional Representative East Africa, SuSan Design

Technical Cafe – AfricaSan 3, 20 th July 2011
Linking Agriculture and Sanitation
How business-driven partnerships can create lowcost
services to the urban poor
Keywords: urban slum, Sanitation for all, robust treatment, safe natural fertilizer,
and agricultural development
www.susan-design.org 2

Why innovation & business
Start up in 2007 – SuSan Design founder Karsten Gjefle was responsible for industrial
designers - sanitation products needed to be improved – going to scale needed more then
products released to the market – we need VALUE CHAINS and INCOME CREATION
Initial research showed that:
• 30 years of NGO/development partner involvement – no or poor results
• New approaches and products are needed to handle the sanitation crisis
• Need to think in value chains from home to farm to become sustainable infrastructure
• Determine the incentives for growth
– Home units suited for urban slums
– Produce eco friendly fertilizer, valuable and natural
– Owners of public toilets must make a good living – farmers too
– micro financing frees us from the donors and their always changing priorities
– Urban renewal must focus on sanitation
– Community appreciation when clean up can start – health effects kick in
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Goals
Development and implementation of a
sustainable value chain for collection of
household biomass and human excreta as
platform for production of natural agricultural
inputs, biochar and delivery of sanitation
services to the communities

Why sanitation and how do we think?
Sanitation is key in creating better cities
and a dignified, healthy life in urban
Africa. To create low cost quality
sanitation options, value chains need to
be developed to secure income from
the system. Toilet services,
maintenance, collection of valuable bio
materials and treatment will be
converted to agricultural inputs that can
be sold to commercial agriculture and
flower production around Kampala.

Sanitation:
an engine of economic growth for Africa
Keywords economic perspective:
Low initial investment
sanitation business ownership
Quality logistics
job creation
natural fertilizer production
Safe soil improvement product
food security
Health in town and healthy food
education
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“EcoSan is the future of sanitation, not a step towards water based solutions”
* SuSan Design is a business minded foundation focusing on going to scale solutions
• Incentive based approach for improved management
• Low technical complexity – industrial production of units for low prices & high quality
• Easy and hygienic logistics all the way
• Income from fertilizer and soil improvement products by sale to commercial farmers
• Income generated will finance maintenance, motivate investment and roll out
• Integration of micro financing from the start so we don’t get caught in donor red tape
• Urban slums display a comparative advantage with high population concentration
• Franchise assures training, flow of products and the quality assurance within system
• Will create employment, pride, health and dignity within the community
• Slum upgrade can only be successful after the sanitation issue is dealt with
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Some numbers – 2,6 billion do not have a toilet
In Africa 200 million people live in urban slums without toilets…
Sub-Saharan Africa slum-dwellers = 72 per cent of urban population
In the next 30 years, the global number of slum-dwellers will be two billion !
100.000 people - 50 % collection rate = 25 tons of industrial fertilizer/month
1 kg of industrial fertilizer in Uganda is over 1 USD
Soil improvement is needed all across Africa
SuSan Design is science based so faecal sludge can become 99,99% SAFE
The challenge is to create the hygienic and efficient logistics
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The project set up in Kampala

Government and donors need to invest in
productive sanitation
Payback on investment at least 10 : 1
The partners hip in Kampala will deliver:
A model for urban slums starting in Kampala
Framework of scaling up to other countries in Africa
Urban sanitation – health and dignity
Sale of pathogen free natural fertilizer
School sanitation – better products needed
Food security, health savings, girls education completed
and CO2 reductions
Economic growth

% Coverage
The international community has failed
(We just have to do better then this…)
(Source – UNICEF statistics)
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
Urban Sanitation - lack of progress in Africa
1990 1995 2000 2006
Year of data
Burundi
Central African Republic
Chad
Congo
DRC
Djibouti
Eritrea
Ethiopia
Kenya
Malawi
Mali
Mozambique
Rwanda
Somalia
Sudan
Swaziland
Uganda
Zambia
Zimbabwe
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What is special of the SuSan Design approach
The Team:
Product and service designers – low cost can also be high quality products
the scientists – cooperation between SLU of Sweden and Makerere University
agricultural focus - Uganda Cooperative Alliance and NARO in Uganda
Communities: SSWARS, SWAGAN
Information gathering from all kinds of sanitation partners in Uganda 2007-08
Analysis of the many reports with poor results
We base our structure on:
Science on how to assure safe agricultural inputs – cheap, fast & reliable
Design brief – system description that identified knowledge gaps
Product design of urinal, toilets structure, treatment unit
Market study of urine
Risk assessment for the logistics based on the treatment system
PhDs giving solid evidence of a robust treatment process
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The competition:
Sewage based systems: a case of triple loss
1. high investment in water production and pipes for transport + maintenance
2. loss of nutrients needed for food production – economic burden to replace
3. massive pollution of water ways – degradation of natural capital
Believe it or not: it’s still on the agenda as a possible solution…
‘REINVENTING THE TOILET’
Bill Gates Foundation
‘REINVENTING SANITATION APPROACH’
Sustainable Sanitation Design
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Trends giving potential
Innovation needed
• High energy prices
• Raising (industrial) fertilizer cost
• African farmers/soils need natural
alternative to increase productivity
• Cities need sanitation systems
• No results from 30 years of
NGO/Gov/dev cooperation
• Population doubles in 25 years
• Urban growth of 3-7%
• Sustainability – Eco friendliness
• Product focus during start up
• By understanding the volumes +
potential + dynamics = Urban
slum sanitation value chain
• Treatment challenge of 1000 tons
of shit and 2000 m3 of urine ?
• Create the economics
• Only safe products should be sold
for money
• Transfer the science to treatment
methodology to be decentralized
• Create cooperatives or franchise
structure to maintain quality
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Urban slum is our main focus
1. Urban Slum Sanitation from home to farm – Value chain development
‣ Home unit
‣ Urban public unit
‣ Secondary treatment unit
‣ Delivery to farmers
2. School Sanitation
‣ Urban schools with delivery to the secondary treatment unit
‣ Decentralized solutions with school sanitation units run by local farmers – this unit will
increase the lifespan of toilets in schools from months to many years…
Other areas of interest
3. Refugee camp version of urban public unit
4. Hotel/Lodge/tourist camp version
5. Home unit – pit latrine EcoSan conversion kit
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The volumes and value
Urine
Average 1,4 liters pr day
Collection rate 30%
For every 100.000 users
= 1260 m 3 pr month
Assuming medium rate of N (80 liters = 1 kg)
= 15,75 tons kg industrial fertilizer pr month
Solids
Average 0,3 kg
Collection rate 60% (should be higher)
For every 100.000 users
= 540 tons per month (before treatment)
Important for soil quality
= treatment cost 30-40 $ pr ton
Sludge integration training to farmers
Use of urine – how and when – research needed on productivity gains
The safe soil improvement product will improve long term productivity
Can the farmers trained become school sanitation managers?
How can the sanitation unit in urban areas become a viable business?
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home Unit - Introduction
Product: Susan Design Unisex Urinal
Background: Women in slums suffer
greatly by not having a place to pee
during the day
Designed in close cooperation with
women in the slums of Kampala
Maintains the fertilizer quality of urin
Very valuable for the disabled
designer: Sarah Keller
prototype development: Øyvind Grønlie, SuSan Design

Prototype Assembling of Urinal for Home Unit

URINAL USABILITY
Urinal User-friendliness
joy
satisfaction
convenient
time saving
safer during the nights
Odorless
giving privacy
clean
easy to use
reduced chances of infection
an alternative to disgusting toilet facilities
the right size
A pre-unit pupil (5 years old) using a
urinal

Urban public unit
• To be developed based on design brief
• Target: 10 – 12 toilets as a unit run as a business by local
entrepreneurs
• All units part of the franchise structure
• Receive micro financing and training
• Toilet income: small fee for toilet visit – urinals are free of charge
– sell urine to farmers – shop with hygiene products, air time etc.
• 600-1000 users per unit in urban slums across Africa
SuSan Design will develop, outsource production and sell the units
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The Treatment Unit
Background:
The spread of disease is from non hygenized fecal matter. Composting or pit latrine storage does not give a safe
agricultural input. Dry toilets with urine diversion enhances the reuse aspect. The treatment is done to assure
that the urine and the soil improvement product is safe and maintains its nutritional value.
Urine
can carry bacteria and virus if contaminated from feacal matter. Cross contamination is minimized by incentives to
use urinals, a well designed squat pan and clear user guidelines.
Treatment of urine:
Storage of 2-6 weeks depending on risk evaluation will create a safe agricultural (natural) fertilizer. Risk
evaluation and guidelines have been developed with the University of Life Sciences and field testing will be done
in cooperation with National Agricultural Research Organization in Uganda for implementation with farmers.
Treatment of solids:
A team of researchers from the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences has developed a cheap and easy to
use hygienisation methodology for feacal matter that produces a safe soil improvement agent. 4% urea is added,
neutralizing the pathogens and enhancing the fertilizer and soil improvement qualities of the solids.
Cost:
20-30 USD pr. ton of fecal matter + transport. The challenge is to create a structure for treatment that assures
the safety of every batch. We have a worked on this aspect but in this situation we will need to create training
manuals and teaching materials to transfer this knowledge. The process adds qualities to the solids improving the
fertilizer value and soil improvement qualities of a product that the farmer needs.
Storage time 4 week in closed containers with minimum 20° C
SuSan Design all rights reserved
www.susan-design.org
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Reports and research done
• Design brief for urban slum value chain – public unit – Uganda
• Risk assessment for the value chain – treatment in particular
• Market study for urine in Kampala showing a sustainable income for units
run by entrepreneurs in Kampala
• Paper published: “Sanitation - an engine of economic growth”
• Preliminary business plan developed – needs revision
• Treatment methodology is science based with several Phds available
• Testing of prototype Uni-sex urinal in Nairobi done with German GIZ
• Emergency card UD toilet developed to prototype – not field tested yet
• Strategy for productive school toilets for Africa
• Toilet structure design for urban areas – cheap, solid and flexible –
prototype to be tested in Kampala 1 st Q 2012.
And more…
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• MERCI MINGI
• ASANTE SANA
• DANKE SCHOEN
• MERCI BEAUCOUP
• MURAKOZE CYANE
• THANK YOU VERY MUCH
SuSan Design all rights reserved
www.susan-design.org
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