trends and future of sustainable development - TransEco

aspects. Through the scrutiny of legislation and policies it is attempted to learn how the writtendocuments and strategies conform to the practices.Ecological sanitation is a viable option for improved sanitation. However, to ensure the full benefitsof the system, the use of human excreta must be allowed as fertiliser to finalise the nutrient cycle. In thispaper the situation in Zambia is described: could ecosan be a potential solution for the country’ssanitation problems, and how does the legislation enforce this. The areas studied here vary fromlegislation on housing and public health to environment and agriculture – to ensure the legality ofecosan and the reuse of nutrients in all aspects of society. Yet, it is challenging to maintain a commonline of policy in all the sectors, and often it is possible to see a notable difference in the motives ofauthorities, which leads to a continuing cycle of debate and conflict.2. Sanitation in ZambiaThe sanitation situation in Zambia remains poor. Especially in the peri-urban areas in the outskirts oftowns, where the population is rather dense, it is difficult to organise proper sanitary facilities. Sewageinfrastructure does not reach the outskirts and renovations would require additional investments;something the country simply does not have resources for. Traditional pit latrines are the main sanitaryfacility, but high water table and heavy rains in the rainy season increase the risk of polluting thegroundwater and thus enable the spreading of diarrhoeal diseases such as cholera causing epidemicsnearly annually.These figures, however, do not take into account the definition of improved sanitation. Improvedsanitation, by definition in the National Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Programme (NRWSSP) of2007 includes ventilated improved pit (VIP) latrine, a pit latrine with a sanitation platform, a traditionalpit latrine with a smooth floor surface, an ecosan latrine, a flush/pour-flush latrine and a septic tanklatrine (Republic of Zambia 2008). However, the figures from the Central Statistics Office (2006), arebased only on VIP latrines and flush toilets. The lack of clear definition makes the measurement difficult.The figures used here are based on the Zambian Health survey of 2007, who define adequate sanitationas follows:“A household is classified as having an improved toilet if the toilet is used only by members of onehousehold (i.e., it is not shared) and if the facility used by the household separates the waste fromhuman contact.” (WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme for Water Supply and Sanitation,2004)According to the survey, 43,7 % of the urban population and only 12,9 % of the rural population hadaccess to an improved sanitation facility, bringing the total to 23,9 % of the Zambian population havingadequate sanitary facilities. Most toilet facilities were flush/pour flush toilets or improved pit latrines –composting toilets appeared only 0,1 % in the urban areas. 23,5 % of the population has no sanitationfacilities of any kind, with the percentage being 1,8 % and 35,4% in urban and rural areas respectively. *(CSO et al. 24, 2009). Improving sanitation conditions is one of the Millennium Development Goals but*Due to unclear definitions, the figures differ radically. Here I have chosen to use the latest Zambian figures. Forcomparison, the figures from UNICEF indicate that 52 % of the population use improved sanitation facilities, withthe urban and rural sanitation coverage being 55 % and 51 % respectively (data from 2006).148