Sanitation planning in developing countries: Added value of resource recovery

Worldwide 2.5 billion people lack access to sanitation. This impacts human live, the environment and represents a loss of valuable resources that can be recovered from wastewater and solid waste. This study shows that resource recovery can be a potential driver to accelerate sanitation.

The variety of advantages and disadvantages of sanitation interventions complicates the sanitation planning process. To support policy makers in planning sanitation that considers sustainability dimensions (social, environment, economy), a new sanitation framework was developed that can quantitatively evaluate the (1) environmental impact, (2) operational costs and benefits, and (3) the potential to close material cycles (e.g. phosphorus, compost).

We showed that the economic Benefit to Cost Ratio of resource recovery technologies is bigger than that of conventional (low cost) technologies, while improving the water quality. The framework was illustrated using Indonesia as an example, but its application can benefit the quality of millions of lives worldwide.