A review of sustainable sanitation systems in Africa

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• 作者：Irene Nansubuga ; Noble Banadda…
• 关键词：A ; stage biosorptive sludge system ; Sustainable wastewater treatment ; Resource recovery ; Developing countries ; Water reuse ; Nutrient management ; Agriculture
• 刊名：Reviews in Environmental Science and Biotechnology
• 出版年：2016
• 出版时间：September 2016
• 年：2016
• 卷：15
• 期：3
• 页码：465-478
• 全文大小：1,186 KB
• 刊物类别：Earth and Environmental Science
• 刊物主题：Environment
  Environmental Biotechnology
  Microbiology
  Atmospheric Protection, Air Quality Control and Air Pollution
  
• 出版者：Springer Netherlands
• ISSN：1572-9826
• 卷排序：15

文摘

Access to proper sanitation is still elusive in many parts of Africa. While significant improvement in global sanitation has been realised, the sanitation situation in Africa is still appalling with almost 20 % of the population reported to still practice open defecation in Sub Saharan Africa. The impacts of poor sanitation systems range from negatively impacting natural resources water quality, to causing health risks to the populations involved. Obviously, the current sanitation systems have gaps and can barely help the situation, which points to the necessity of a paradigm shift in the wastewater management to include interventions that would make proper sanitation achievable for all. Such interventions include decentralisation and resource recovery, which will not only produce environmentally acceptable effluents, but are also pertinent in achieving decreased costs for sanitation systems, hence making them more affordable. The decentralised system is cheaper than the centralised system, mainly due to decreased sewer needs and combining it with resource recovery. This provides an opportunity of decreasing costs further due to the several economic benefits attached to the recovered products. Whereas sanitation involves both wastewater and solid waste, this review paper discusses the current sanitation situation in Africa and proposes a wastewater management plan that could contribute to improvement for small agricultural communities. The plan encourages zero waste generation through decentralisation and recovery of water, energy and by-products such as nutrients and organics relevant to the local community. Apart from the proposed technological strategies, a winning sanitation management plan should also be appreciated and supported by all stakeholders, which can be achieved through proper communication and integration of local user needs.