The Evolution of Decentralised Resource Recovery-Based Sanitation Within a Developing Country Context: Case Study: South Africa

The intersection of toilet-wastewater-energy-pollution is a growing concern globally, spanning both developed and developing nations. Prioritizing the development of safe, hygienic, and suitable sanitation solutions is crucial worldwide. Developed countries have traditionally employed a linear design approach, utilizing conventional waterborne systems and continually refining them to comply with stricter pollution regulations, aiming to minimize environmental pollution. However, developing nations face challenges in implementing such systems due to factors like rapid urbanization, constrained water and energy supply, financing, and issues relating to affordability, and revenue, leading to a heavy reliance on non-sewered sanitation systems. In South Africa, due to the constrained water supply, dry non-sewered systems, typically latrine variants, have been implemented. Poor user acceptance for dry sanitation, preference for flush toilets and resistance to communal handling of faecal -origin material has meant that innovative approaches are required that combines the benefits of both sewered and non-sewered systems: comfort, convenience, cleanliness and efficient use of resources. Innovation across the sanitation value chain has enabled low flush volume toilets without the need for reticulated sewers, flushing source separation pedestals, and closed-loop recycling systems in which human-origin facecal waste and flushing water is recycled and/or transformed into value-add products. This paper presents South Africa’s 20-year sanitation evolution in developing and commercialising disruptive technologies aligning with user preferences, capable of safely treating human excreta without the need for sewers or external water and energy supplies, and reuse of treatment process products. The paper provides case studies and major lessons, including challenges and obstacles faced/overcome, in disrupting the binary traditional paradigm implemented across the developing world (sewered or latrine approach).