Wastewater Treatment Africa

This case study describes how the community organisation ESTAMOS, in collaboration with WaterAid, have successfully driven a household-based initiative to improve health and advocate for clean water and safe sanitation in Lichinga, the remote capital of the Niassa province in Mozambique.

This case study reports the establishment of single vault UDDTs as a pilot and demonstration project in Rwanda to test the new concept of ecological sanitation with UDDTs in rural primary schools and provide a healthy school environment. Because of the high number of users and the anticipated amount of faeces to be collected per day, UDDTs with a single vault were chosen. The faeces are sanitised in a separate drying shelter.

This issue publishes selected contributions from the 1st WATERBIOTECH conference. WATERBIOTECH („Biotechnology for Africa‘s sustainable water supply“) is a coordination and support action funded within the Africa call of the EU 7th Framework Programme.

This case studies reports form the implementation of ecosan toilets in the peri-urban area of Ouagadougou financed by the European Union. The aim of the project was to demonstrate ecosan on an urban level with a centralised collection and treatment facilities and commercialisation of hygienised urine and faeces.

The project aimed at providing safe water supply and sanitation to the population resettled – after floods – in the less flood-prone Guara-Guara region in the Sofala Province, Mozambique. Since the area is characterised by high groundwater tables, so called “ventilated double vault urine diversion dehydration toilets” (UDDTs) were implemented to not contaminate the groundwater, and thus not threaten public health (unlike pit latrines).

This document summarises a review of the experience, amongst others in sub-Saharan African countries, with total sanitation and sanitation marketing (TSSM) approaches and their application to the USAID context. This document describes the above approaches, assesses their application to rural and urban areas, provides guidance on what it takes to make them successful, and offers recommendations.

This video showcases the creation of compost from farm waste as a pillar of production of top quality crops.

This case study reports replacement of pit latrines with a UDDT block (six single-vault UDDTs) for Nelson Mandela School, a private school from grade 1 to 9 with a total of 200 students and teachers, in Arba Minch, Ethiopia. The school staff operates and maintains the toilet (storage conditions of excreta, urine, hand washing facilities, cleaning of toilets, provision of drying agent like ash). The school janitor is responsible for providing the drying agents.

This case study is about a project to replace a pit latrine with UDDT for one household in Arba Minch, Ethiopia, serving 10 persons. The project is part of the larger EU-funded ROSA project.

This case study shows the use of grey water towers as a tool for household sanitation in Uganda. The project serves 40 inhabitants in Kitgum Town, Uganda. It was realised within the ROSA project, which aims at developing adaptable, affordable and replicable sanitation solutions in Africa.

This SuSanA case study compiles experiences from a ROSA sanitation pilot project in Kitgum Town in northern Uganda. The ROSA project started in October 2006. The first activity of the project was to conduct a baseline study, which was concluded by March 2007 in order to get basic information about the sanitation situation and the status of reusing nutrients from excreta, wastewater and grey water.

This video shows the application of biogas plants for the treatment of wastewater from Rwandan prisons.

This case study is about pilot scale urine diversion dehydration toilets for peri-urban informal households in Omaruru, Namibia. The project was designed to show the advantages of dry sanitation systems in arid regions such as Namibia. It further aims at involving the local authorities in such a way that they can implement sanitation facilities in the future based on the findings of the pilot study.

The EcoSan Promotion Project (EPP) was an EU-funded and SIDA and GTZ co-funded project component embedded in the Water Sector Reform Program of GTZ water program. Within the project period 263 double vault Urine Diversion Dehydration Toilets (UDDTs) were constructed in 70 schools. The project’s aim was to develop, test and promote the reuse orientated sanitation (ecosan) concepts for large and small-scale applications in mostly rural and peri-urban areas of Kenya.

This study was undertaken within the ROSA project (Resource oriented Sanitation concepts in peri‐urban areas in Africa) in order to understand greywater characteristics and to demonstrate a low cost reuse option involving direct application of untreated greywater to small so called “greywater towers” at household level in peri‐urban settlements in Kitgum Town Council.

The South Western Towns Water and Sanitation (SWTWS) project was created in 1995 to provide water supply and improve sanitation in 19 small towns and rural centres in south-west Uganda. The main focus was to provide water and sanitation systems with low operation and maintenance costs to ensure sustainability given the low-income levels of the beneficiaries.

This case study reports the project history and lessons learnt (after 6 years) from construction of a total o 42 UDDTs in two villages in Botswana.

This case study reports the improvement on sanitation by establishing two single-vault UDDTs, one double-vault UDDT and a urinal for a population of 50 church members and 25 children in Nakuru, Kenya. Dry faecal matter from the UDDT is applied around banana plants and trees, and urine is used to grow corn and vegetables on an experimental basis.

This case study reports the design and construction of a toilet block consisting of three single vault UDDTs for a population of 28 households at a residential plot in Hilton estate, a high-density low-income settlement in the North-Western part of Nakuru Town. To overcome problems associated to the misuse of the toilets by visitors and strangers who were not familiar with the proper use, a new toilet management system has been put in place, where the three UDDTs are divided among the 28 households, who are supposed to take care and maintain the toilets.

This SuSanA case study compiles experiences from a ROSA sanitation pilot project implemented in a secondary school in Nakuru, Kenya. Single vault urine diversion toilets, a faeces drying shed and grey water treatment were implemented in this project. The project serves about 200 students.

This study reports the improvement of the sanitation systems of a rural public health centre in Kanawat, Uganda. Excreta from UDDTs and composting pit latrines are treated together in sludge drying beds. Greywater is treated in a sludge drying bed and a constructed wetland and finally reused for irrigation.

Case study on a school UDDT project and the reuse of the collected urine in Kalunga, Uganda

This project aimed to gain scientific knowledge on the technical, socio-economical and operational aspects of co-composting (organic solid waste and faecal material). Dried faecal sludge (drying bed) is co-composted with the organic fraction of solid waste. The final product is used as compost for urban and periurban agriculture.

Article in the RUAF Urban Agriculture Magazine on gardening activities in the Kibera slum, Nairobi, Kenya

Faced with limited space to dig latrines in some parts of the Farchana refugee camp in Chad and the collapse of latrines in sandy areas, SECADEV (a Chadian NGO) has been testing its own form of ecological toilet - family latrines that can be emptied. The ecological sustainable part is that space is saved (there is no need to dig new pits as they can be emptied when full). Furthermore, faeces are supposed to be reused for agricultural purposes.

A sanitation unit (toilet, hand wash basins, a urinal and showers) and a water kiosk were constructed for a public bus park (design sale was 1000 visitors per day). This projects aimed to improve living conditions of the residents and travellers by providing environmentally-friendly sanitation solutions with a focus on the reuse of the human waste as a resource and to find a business-oriented solution that creates economic incentives for the water sector institutions to invest in sanitation and to generate income for private operators.

This case study describes a pilot project that implemented double vault UDDTs in rural and peri-urban areas of Kenya and reached in total 10,000 beneficiaries with around 1,000 household and school toilets.

This case study is about a large-scale project of eThekwini Municipality (Durban), where free basic water supply and sustainable sanitation in form of urine diversion dehydration toilets (UDDTs) are provided in rural and peri-urban areas at household level. This project integrates the delivery of household water facilities (yard tanks), appropriate sanitation services (UDDT), household education and training as one package.

The project was developed under the EU funded project "Resource-Oriented Sanitation concepts for peri-urban areas in Africa (ROSA)", which took place in four countries in east Africa. The general objective of this project was to promote resource oriented sanitation concepts in high-density areas. There was an increased number of people owning urine diversion dehydration toilets (UDDTs) and having wide knowledge on resource oriented sanitation concepts.

This case study is about pilot sanitation facilities at a school compound in Arusha, Tanzania. UDDTs were constructed to serve a population of 56 people. This project was part of the larger EU-funded ROSA project.

This video explains the application of biogas plants at Women for Women's new centre in Kayonza, Rwanda.

Greywater towers were selected as one of the methods that can be adopted to treat and safely reuse greywater for Arba Minch town and eight such units were constructed. Awareness about the unit has been raised in the community of Arba Minch and promising demand has been created.

Ghana. The Malawi case describes the experiences of an ecological sanitation at Embangweni. The Tanzania case demonstrates the private sector partnership in peri-urban and rural sanitation with the case of SanPlat promotion. Ghana looks at financial and institutional challenges to make faecal sludge management an integrated part of the ecological sanitation approach.

This case study is part of a project investigating barriers to sanitation and hygiene promotion in three francophone countries in sub-Saharan Africa: Madagascar, Burkina Faso and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

This case study is part of a project investigating barriers to sanitation and hygiene promotion in three francophone countries in sub-Saharan Africa: Madagascar, Burkina Faso and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

This case study is part of a project investigating barriers to sanitation and hygiene promotion in three francophone countries in sub-Saharan Africa: Madagascar, Burkina Faso and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

This case study is about an upgrading demonstration project for peri-urban areas in Koulikoro, Mali. 11 UDDTs and grey water infiltration gardens were constructed in that project. This project was implemented by GTZ on behalf of the German Ministry BMZ. It was sustainable, mainly because institutional and financial sustainability criteria were severely neglected.

These WSP field notes describe and analyse projects and activities in water and sanitation that provide lessons for sector leaders, administrators, and individuals tackling the water and sanitation challenges in urban and rural areas. The case studies included in this series are of large-scale impact, demonstrable sustainability, good cost recovery, replicable conditions, and leadership. They cover Zambia, South Africa, Mozambique and Tanzania.

In 2009, WSP began to work with ten local governments to test the effectiveness of marketing as a method to prompt households in rural Tanzania to invest in improving their sanitation facilities. Lessons include: to fall in line with national reporting structures to make monitoring and evaluation easier; to design the program around the consumer’s immediate needs and wants to bridge the knowledge-behaviour gap; to integrate supply and demand activities; and to strengthen the supply chain.

This overview summarises WSP's work with local and national governments and the local private sector to end open defecation and scale up rural sanitation in Ethiopia and Tanzania. It describes how communities in rural Tanzania are reducing the spread of disease and creating local sanitation markets. Local masons are trained to make slabs, or Sanplats, which are more hygienic. These are purchased for US$5 by households and added to existing pit latrines.

This case study is about a pilot scale construction of urine diverting dry toilets (UDDTs) at Adama University (AU), Ethiopia. A major challenge for most Ethiopian universities is the insufficient water supply and the situation at AU, which has more than 13,000 students. Based on this, the University Capacity Building Programme (UCBP) with the support of GIZ International Services (formerly, GTZ International Services) in Ethiopia and OtterWasser GmbH, designed, funded and constructed a UDDT complex for some (but not all) staff and students at AU in Ethiopia.

The presentation allows for a good overview on existing types of pit latrines in Africa, but also on other types of sanitation technologies such as the conventional flush toilet, the pour flush toilet, and the urine diversion dehydration toilet (UDDT).