Urine Diversion: One Step Towards Sustainable Sanitation

This 2006 report by the Stockholm Environment Institute examines urine diversion as a sustainable sanitation alternative to help meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). It details the technical, organizational, and economic aspects of separating urine from faeces to enable nutrient recycling in agriculture, drawing heavily on Swedish municipal experiences and international case studies from West Africa, China, and El Salvador.

• Urine diversion supports multiple Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by improving dry sanitation, reducing pathogen transport to groundwater, and providing a free, hygienic fertilizer to increase food security and reduce malnutrition.
• In West Africa, research by the CREPA organization across seven countries demonstrated that urine diversion is feasible, accepted by users, and cheaper to construct than Ventilated Improved Pit (VIP) latrines.
• Large-scale implementation of urine diversion has been achieved in China, including the installation of 685,000 toilets across 17 provinces by the end of 2003 and the development of an eco-suburb in Dong Sheng, Inner Mongolia.
• In Sweden, urine diversion has been integrated into municipal policies in places like Tanum, where the municipality takes responsibility for the emptying, storage, and agricultural use of urine.
• Technical challenges in urine diversion systems include the risk of blockages caused by the chemical precipitation of struvite and calcium phosphates, which require periodic cleaning with caustic soda or acetic acid.
• The report argues that the risks associated with hormones and pharmaceuticals in human urine are negligible when used as fertilizer, as soil microbes can degrade these substances and the levels are lower than those found in domestic animal manure.
• Economic analysis in the Swedish context indicates that urine-diverting toilets with dry faecal collection are the cheapest on-site sanitation alternative compared to dual-flush, composting, or package treatment plants.
• To ensure hygiene in large-scale systems, the report recommends specific storage times based on temperature: for example, at 20°C, urine should be stored for at least 6 months to be used for all crops.
• User acceptance varies; while many appreciate the lack of smell and water savings, some women have reported that toilet designs can be inadequate, leading to urine entering the faecal drop-hole.

APA

Kvarnström, E., Emilsson, K., Stintzing, A. R., Johansson, M., Jönsson, H., Petersens, E. A., Schönning, C., Christensen, J., Hellström, D., Qvarnström, L., Ridderstolpe, P., & Drangert, J.-O. (2006). Urine Diversion: One Step Towards Sustainable Sanitation. Stockholm Environment Institute. https://www.sei.org/mediamanager/documents/Publications/SEI-Report-Kvarnstrom-UrineDiversion-2006-1.pdf

Chicago

Kvarnström, Elisabeth, Karin Emilsson, Anna Richert Stintzing, Mats Johansson, Håkan Jönsson, Ebba af Petersens, Caroline Schönning, et al. Urine Diversion: One Step Towards Sustainable Sanitation. Stockholm Environment Institute, 2006. https://www.sei.org/mediamanager/documents/Publications/SEI-Report-Kvarnstrom-UrineDiversion-2006-1.pdf.

Wikipedia

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BibTeX

@techreport{kvarnstrm2006urine, author = {Kvarnström, Elisabeth and Emilsson, Karin and Stintzing, Anna Richert and Johansson, Mats and Jönsson, Håkan and Petersens, Ebba af and Schönning, Caroline and Christensen, Jonas and Hellström, Daniel and Qvarnström, Lennart and Ridderstolpe, Peter and Drangert, Jan-Olof}, title = {{Urine Diversion: One Step Towards Sustainable Sanitation}}, institution = {Stockholm Environment Institute}, year = {2006}, url = {https://www.sei.org/mediamanager/documents/Publications/SEI-Report-Kvarnstrom-UrineDiversion-2006-1.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }