Assessing Ecological Enginering 1

Urine fertilized banana plantation in Bangalore Student Term Project 2008:
Assessing the Ecosan Project at Rajendra Nagar Slum, Bangalore, India

The Rajendra Nagar slum with a population of approximately 15'000 had a major lack of sanitation facilities. Residents were forced to defecate in the open field, which resulted in massive hygiene and social issues.

To improve the situation the ACTS (a local NGO: Agriculture, Crafts, Trades and studies) established an Ecological sanitation (ecosan) pilot project in 2001 and opened a new, ecological and economically friendly public toilet centre with eight toilets, accessible against a tiny users fee. Urine and feces were collected separately. The urine was reused as a liquid fertilizer for a nearby banana plantation. Feces were applied to a biogas plant on the ACTS campus, where the gas was used for cooking. The remaining slurry got dried and was used as soil amendment on the plantation. The sale of the bananas and the user fees created an income which flowed back into the project and helped the slum development [1,2].

Criteria

The evaluation is mainly based on ecological engineering criteria from the book of H.D. van Bohemen [6] but contains as well other sources. The criteria listed below were selected because they show a wide variety of different aspects to look at and could be well adaptive to the chosen study. The ecosan project itself was selected to evaluate, as the system is a very auspicious future-orientated technology, which points the right way towards solving a prominent global problem.

Criteria	Fulfilled	Partially fulfilled	Not fulfilled
01.) Beginn-of-pipe thinking	x
02.) Focus on multi-functionality	x
03.) Promoting self- stabilization			x
04.) Keeping energy and resource consumption low		x
05.) Promoting a high degree of recycling	x
06.) Minimise impact on the environment		x
07.) Promote decentral thinking	x
08.) Accounting for local peculiarities			x
09.) As good as or better than conventional solutions	x

1. Begin of pipe thinking: Fulfilled

The system recognises human excreta as a reusable resource instead of a disposal product. In addition, wastewater is minimised, as the toilets operate dry [1,2].

2. Focus on multi-functionality: Fulfilled

The aims of the project are manifold including improving living conditions, recycling of nutrients and organics for fertilizer and biogas production, generating an income for slum development as well as creating employment for slum dwellers, furthermore minimising the impact on the environment [2].

3. Promoting self-stabilization: Not fulfilled

The system was not designed to promote to self-stabilization. The ecosan system needs human work and activities. E.g., The toilets need to be cleaned, the fecal matter and urine have to be transported to the processing and reuse site at the ACTS Campus, and the fertilizer has to be carried out in the plantations [1].

4. Keeping energy and resource consumption low: Partially fulfilled

Compared to conventional toilet systems the energy and resource consumption is rather low. The ecosan system does not need water, which is one of the most important resources in the world and as there is no wastewater, no energy consuming sewage plant is needed. Furthermore, the biogas plant even produces own energy, which is used for cooking on the ACTS Campus. Still, energy is needed for the transportation of the excreta from the slum to the ACTS Campus and for the suction unit, which pumps the excreta from one canister to the other. Finally, the system in Bangalore operates with high technology, which contain a lot of grey energy and resources. (biogas plant, pumping systems)[1]. Therefore we consider this criterion as only partly fulfilled.

5. Promoting a high degree of recycling: Fulfilled

The separated urine is replacing commercial fertiliser in a local banana plantation. The fruits get sold while the money flows back into the project. Feces are turned into biogas, which is used as an LPG replacement for cooking and the remaining slurry is dried and applied as soil amendment [2].

6. Minimise impact on the environment: Partially fulfilled

In general, the idea of the system does minimize the impact on the environment. No wastewater contaminates water bodies, having access to toilets stops several people to defecate in the open field, thereby stops soil contamination and finally the recycling and reuse of the nutrients replaces artificial fertilizer in the field [2,4]. Still, in this project itself locally problems appeared, mainly through careless carrying out of the fertilizers in the field by local employees, which resulted in oversalted plants [4]. Therefore we consider this criterion as only partly fulfilled.

7. Promote decentral thinking: Fulfilled

The project is run by the local non-governmental organization ACTS. Every process step takes part between the slum and the ACTS Campus. No central facility is directly involved. To integrate local people was one of the main objectives of the project [1]. Slum dwellers are integrated in the system, even if mainly for lower positions where no qualification is needed [3].

8. Accounting for local peculiarities: Not fulfilled

In India people who come in contact with feces are positioned at the lowest level of social ranking. In the beginning, the project in Bangalore did not integrate this very strong cultural issue into the system process. Employees had direct contact, for example while washing the canisters with the wash water manual, which led to worldwide concern in the ecosan community [4]. Even after the system got up graded with new haul and pump system for the feces and a biogas plant to minimize the contact between employees and feces these cultural pressure stayed present [5]. Therefore we consider this criterion as not fulfilled.

9. As good as or better than conventional solution: Fulfilled

Conventional solutions are not an opportunity for the slum dwellers as they are far too expensive and not affordable. Compared to that, the ecosan system is much cheaper and could even create an income for the slum if operated in a larger scale [2]. Even more important is that the ecosan toilet does not need water and reuses the nutrients, while conventional solutions waste water in a big scale and squander the nutrient value.

Conclusions

The ecosan system itself is a well working technology, which can solve a lot of occurring problems especially in development countries. Furthermore it closes the loop in terms of nutrient cycles between urban and rural areas. But in case of this pilot project cultural principles got highly undervalued. Handling feces in India is neither accepted nor permitted and therefore not as easy to introduce [5]. Supposedly, this ethical dimension was that strong, that it led to the closing of the project in 2006 after the demonstration phase [5]. Ecosan projects have to account to local circumstances and need to be handled with sensitiveness. There need to be an acceptance and understanding for the processes carried out by the employees and the community, otherwise the system, as good as it is might fail.

References

[1] GTZ, (2007): Data sheets for ecosan Projects
http://www.gtz.de/de/dokumente/en-ecosan-pds-023-india-bangalore-public-toilet-2007.pdf
[2] Dr. Ken Gnanakan, (2005): ACTS ecosan Pilot Project
http://www.cepis.ops-oms.org/bvsacg/e/foro4/19%20marzo/Sanit/ACTS.pdf
[3] U. Baier, (2005): When Indian Ecology Meets Swiss engineering http://www.iees.ch/EcoEng051/EcoEng051_Baier.html
[4] Waste, Gouda, Netherlands (2005): The human excreta index (DVD)
[5] Dr. Ken Gnanakan, (17.06.2008): personal E-Mail
[6] van Bohemen, H.D., 2005, Ecological Engineering - Bridging between ecology and civil engineering, Aeneas Technical Publishers, Delft

Project Initiation:
ACTS (Bangalore) in co-operation with Seecon International GmbH and GTZ (German Agency for Technical Co-operation)

Authors

Sophia Kirsch, Manuel Speck, Anina Gysi, Nathalie Mendikowski, all students of environmental engineering at the Zurich University of Applied Sciences (ZHAW), www.zhaw.ch
Contact: N. Mendikowski, This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

Some remarks about this student term project:
This work was written in spring 2008 as part of a student term project in a "Basics in Ecological Engineering" class. The students were 2nd year Bachelor students of environmental engineering at the Zurich University of Applied Sciences, Switzerland. The aim of the project was to help them understand and apply the different sets of criteria used for describing Ecological Engineering projects.

The whole assessment was based on freely-available material found in the internet. No field visits were possible. This paper was selected from a total of 27 as one of the best, in spite of some weaknesses. Its value is that it makes obvious how difficult it can be to apply criteria to largely differing types of projects and how important it would be to start developing a set of concise and applicable criteria for Ecological Engineering projects.
Andreas Schoenborn, April 24, 2009

Last Updated ( Friday, 24 April 2009 )