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Concepts for ecologically sustainable sanitation in formal and continuing education Published in 2006 by the international Hydrological Programme (IHP) of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) 1 rue Miollis, 75732 Paris Cedex 15, France and the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ) GmbH Dag Hammarskjöld Weg 1-5, 65726 Eschborn, Germany IHP-VI Technical Document in Hydrology N° [ in press] UNESCO Working Series SC-2006/ [in press] © 2006 UNESCO/IHP and Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ) GmbH The designations employed and the presentation of material throughout the publication do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of UNESCO concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. This publication may be reproduced in whole or in part in any form for education or non-profit use, without special permission from the copyright holders, provided acknowledgement of the source is made. As a courtesy the authors should be informed of any use made of their work. Any use of this publication or of parts of this publication for commercial purposes needs the prior written authorisation of the copyright holders. Concepts for ecologically sustainable sanitation in formal and continuing education - I - A Preface This publication dealing with educational aspects linked to ecologically sustainable sanitation (referred to as ecosan) is the result of a substantive collaborative effort between UNESCO’s International Hydrological Programme (IHP) and the German Technical Cooperation Agency GTZ (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit GmbH, Eschborn). The reader will find below some relevant background information that should prove useful to grasp more clearly the nature and scope of the publication. Urban water issues have been addressed by the IHP for over twenty years and along with groundwater can be considered one of the oldest topics covered by IHP. However, the initial urban water programmes had little in common with contemporary challenges, which consider the sustainable management of water resources with due consideration of social and institutional issues. The aspects considered by IHP have thus gradually changed so as to arrive to today’s approach. This development applies not only to urban water but also, in general, to the whole IHP. With the change of approach of the IHP, new aspects came into the picture, but these constituted an evolution in broadening the thematic scope without lessening the focus on sound science. This innovative approach needs to be considered in order to fully understand the scope and the spirit in which this report has been conceived. The first historical development concerned the aspects of management since it had become apparent that science and management couldn’t be separated. The initial focus, concentrating on scientific aspects, was expanded by adding environmental, particularly ecological, fields. With the introduction of environmental considerations anthropogenic aspects naturally followed. Thus, human attitudes in their eco-sociological context had to be included. A further step was to place the natural system in proper relation with man-made changes and to recognise the vulnerability of natural systems. Risk analysis helped to understand the fragility of nature and to propose remedial actions. The Sixth Phase of IHP (2002-2007) “Water Interactions: Systems at Risk and Social Challenges”, currently under execution, considers five major themes: (1) Global Changes and Water Resources; (2.) Integrated Watershed and Aquifer Dynamics; (3) Land Habitat Hydrology; (4) Water and Society; and (5) Water Education and Training. Theme 3 considers to water management in specific settings including a focal area on “Urban Areas and Rural settlement” which addresses different aspects of urban water management issues through specific projects. In addition, one major activity channels the technical and scientific elements developed in connection to these urban water related projects into the context of education and training. The purpose is to offer in an integrated fashion the educational tools to enable training activities. The elements thus developed carry a dual purpose, one is to transmit knowledge relevant to a concrete field and the other is to provide the appropriate educational frame for this purpose. In order to demonstrate the usefulness of this dual approach, a specific area has been selected: that of ecologically sustainable sanitation, ecosan. While ecosan clearly has the potential to become a promising alternative, for the developed and developing world alike, there is still a large gap on transmission of the relevant knowledge and capacity building on how to apply ecologically sustainable sanitation. In these circumstances, IHP and GTZ identified their common interests and agreed on a joint venture to produce this publication. In this pursuit, IHP, GTZ and other ecosan partners held several meetings (Eschborn, May 2004; Paris, September 2004; Paris, February 2005; Delft, May 2005) and a concluding workshop in Paris, September 2005 in order to prepare this document. Concepts for ecologically sustainable sanitation in formal and continuing education - II - The publication is largely derived from an ecosan source book issued by the GTZ in 2003 with regard to the first three chapters. The chapters on research and development as well as on education and training fully constitute innovation. IHP wishes to recognise a large number of contributors and reviewers but in particular is grateful to the main authors: Dr. A.R. Panesar, Mrs C. Werner, Dr. E. von Münch, Prof. C. Maksimovic, Mrs. A. Scheinberg, Prof. R Schertenleib, Mr. P. Bracken, and Mr. W.H. Gilbrich. The authors themselves wish to express their appreciation for UNESCO’s interest and material help by arranging for meetings and consultancies. Mr. J.A. Tejada-Guibert, the project manager on behalf of UNESCO, with the assistance of Mrs. B. Radojevic, took charge of the corresponding technical-administrative duties. Feedback on a first draft of this publication was given from many members of the wider working group. Detailed comments were received from J. Kalbermatten, A. Cordova, D. Lapid, A. Papa-Fall, N. Raeth, M. E. de la Pena, L. Yang, E. K. Menger-Krug, J. Lehn and C. Kotz. Substantial text contributions were made by Arno Rosmarin and Jan Olof Drangert for Chapter 4 and by John Kalbermatten for the whole text. Final editing of the text has been undertaken by Arne Panesar, Christine Werner, Wilfred Gilbrich and Patrick Bracken. Material for the Annex came from a large number from organisations, including EcosanRes (Sweden), WASTE (The Netherlands), UNESCO-IHE (The Netherlands), EcosanClub, (Austria), International Ecological Engineering Society (Switzerland), University of Agricultural Sciences (Norway), Technical University Hamburg Harburg (Germany), University of Science and Technology Beijing (China). A helpful restructuring and mid-way re-editing of the text was undertaken by Anne Scheinberg (WASTE). UNESCO and GTZ financed in large measure the production of this document. Additional in-kind contributions were made by WASTE, and Eawag/Sandec, EcoSanRes and UNESCO-IHE and are all gratefully acknowledged. An ecosan-resource CD has been developed parallel to this publication and includes material from a range of organisations. It can be found attached to this publication or obtained via