Faced with the likely threat of a world crisis in hygiene and sanitation, health and water experts are eyeing an innovative technology touted to promote sustainable sanitation in the country, Noel Ferrero of the Integrated Provincial Health Office said, in a recent forum on hygiene and sanitation at Bethel Guesthouse, in Dumaguete City .

Ferrero, also a member of the Technical Working Group of the Provincial Water and Sanitation Development Council, said the philosophy is called “ecosan” or ecological sanitation.

It is pushed by health and water advocates based on a holistic view of material flows — that what has in the past been regarded as a waste for disposal is now regarded as a resource.

He said ecosan is an effective way of achieving the Millennium Development Goal as it will make access to improved sanitation within reach of cash-strapped municipalities.

“Ecosan closes the loop between agriculture and sanitation,” Ferrero said.

One strategy under it is the switch from conventional on-site/off-site sanitation “drop and store” toilet facility to the “urine diversion” toilet wherein human waste is turned into fertilizer, which then feeds the soil that grows crops.

The ecosan toilet facility is an innovative structure to improve human health by minimizing the introduction of pathogens from human excreta into the water cycle and promotes recycling by safe, hygienic recovery and use of nutrients, organics, trace elements, water and energy.

Ferrero said that one person's excreta can provide enough nutrients for 200 m2 to 400 m2 of agricultural production area depending on soil and plant type.

“With Ecosan, there is no need to buy chemical fertilizers that are more and more expensive for farmers since fossil resources are diminishing,” Ferrero said.

The ecosan toilet is inexpensive, uses local materials and applicable to local sanitation practices, Ferrero added. “It is more sustainable than the conventional water carriage sanitation system of ‘flush and forget' we use today,” he said

With the ecosan toilet system, the urine and feces are collected separately, and water is not used to flush. The feces are sprinkled with ash, sawdust, and rice husk and reused for agricultural purposes, he added.*RG

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