Economic Effects of Sustainable Sanitation - SuSanA

Introduction
Programme (JMP), sanitation can be categorised in two classes: unimproved sanitation
including open defecation, the use of unsafe pit latrines and shared facilities; and improved
sanitation including flush toilets, ventilated improved pit latrines or composting toilets
(WHO/UNICEF, 2010, p. 12).
Whereas improved sanitation has been identified as an effective and efficient way of reducing
infectious diarrhoea, its diverse negative health effects, societal, environmental and economic
damages, another approach referred to as sustainable sanitation is successively emerging. It
offers the same advantages as improved sanitation, but does furthermore provide a whole
series of additional benefits. Sustainable sanitation cannot be limited to certain technology
options – various technologies comply with the principles of sustainable sanitation
(Rosemarin et al. 2008, p. 21). A sustainable sanitation system is rather defined by its
ecosystem approach towards human excreta (Esrey et al. 2001, p. 1). Besides improving the
environmental quality of the surroundings, reducing health risks, investment-, operation- and
maintenance (O&M) costs as well as water consumption, sustainable sanitation also enables
the reuse of nutrients from human excreta that are otherwise lost. Thereby it generates a
valuable fertiliser for agricultural use. On a small scale, e.g. in rural areas this reuse ideally
takes place on-site involving no or very limited infrastructure. However, implementation on a
larger scale in order to bridge the gap between areas of nutrient generation (cities) and areas
of nutrient demand (areas with agricultural production), calls for different, more efficient and
new approaches 4 . Additionally, when considering the unplanned structure of slum settlements
and the lack of financial resources both, from residents and local authorities, the need for
developing alternatives to sophisticated and expensive sewer networks, commonly applied in
industrial countries, preferably involving the private sector becomes obvious (UNHABITAT,
2003a, p. 11; Singeling et al., 2009, p. 7).
That is why this thesis investigates the implementability of a privately operated logistics
system that collects, transports, sanitises and redistributes human excreta from slum
settlements to farmers in peri-urban areas and the countryside. At the same time the system
delivers sustainable sanitation to people living in slum settlements, who do not even have
access to basic improved sanitation facilities, thereby contributing to the achievement of
MDG 7, target C.
1.1 Objective and research questions
The present thesis considers the issue of sanitation in general and especially its connection to
present developments regarding slum settlements, undernourishment and public health. Main
objectives of this thesis are to introduce the concept of sustainable sanitation, present its
benefits with a particular focus on the economic effects and its impact on the MDGs.
Focussing on the economic effects is on the one hand, motivated by the fact that they are not
4 Supported by Rosemarin et al., 2007, p. 39, by constituting that there is a lack of relevant publications.
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