Alternative solutions for challenging environments: a look at UNICEF-assisted ecosan projects worldwide

This paper summarises information from 20 UNICEF-assisted ecological sanitation projects in 12 countries. The projects varied widely in size from 95 users for a project with household urine diversion dehydration toilets (UDDTs) in Bangladesh up to 23,000 users under emergency conditions in Zimbabwe. They share characteristics of purpose, scope, challenges, opportunities and sanitation technologies, which were mainly UDDTs and composting toilets. Specific insights are given for the projects in Bangladesh and Rwanda where large-scale ecological sanitation „ecosan‟ programs are currently underway. We discuss the potential to scale-up initiatives by providing increased technical back-up support to users, greater linkages with community-led total sanitation and with income generation initiatives via higher agricultural yields. In the context of growing urbanisation and hydro-geological challenges, this paper highlights that “ecosan technologies” (such as UDDTs) can be a suitable technical solution where pit-based toilets are impossible to be implemented sustainably.