Technologies are defined as the specific infrastructure, methods, or services that are designed to contain and transform products, or to transport them to another functional group. Each of the 57 technologies included in this Compendium is described on a Technology Information Sheet. There are between 6 and 17 different technologies within each of the five functional groups. Only those sanitation technologies which have been proven and tested in the context of low and middle-income countries are comprised in this document. Moreover, technologies are only included if they are considered “improved” regarding the provision of safe, hygienic, and accessible sanitation.
A wide variety of sanitation technologies of all functional groups are currently under development, exist only as prototypes and are not fully mature yet. The most interesting and promising developments with potential for implementation in low and middle-income countries are outlined in the section “Emerging Sanitation Technologies”. Hopefully, some of these technologies may be included in the form of a technology information sheet in a future edition of the Compendium.
This Compendium is primarily concerned with systems and technologies directly related to Excreta and does not address the specifics of Greywater or Stormwater management but shows when they can be co-treated with Excreta. So although Greywater and Stormwater are shown as products in the system templates, the related technologies are not described in detail. For a more comprehensive summary of dedicated Greywater systems and technologies refer to Morel and Diener (2006).