SANITATION, WASTEWATER MANAGEMENT AND SUSTAINABILITY

The report advocates for a paradigm shift in sanitation and wastewater management, moving from a focus on waste disposal to one of resource recovery. It details how recovering water, nutrients, and energy from waste streams can improve public health, food security, and climate mitigation while creating economic opportunities. The document provides technical guidance on system design, risk management for human and environmental health, and the institutional and financial frameworks necessary to implement sustainable, context-specific sanitation systems.

• Global wastewater and excreta production contains significant recoverable resources: daily production of 9.5 million m3 of human excreta and 900 million m3 of municipal wastewater contains enough nutrients to replace 25% of synthetic nitrogen and 15% of phosphorus used in agriculture, and enough water to irrigate 15% of all currently irrigated farmland.
• Sustainable sanitation and wastewater management can contribute to up to 32 Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) targets, including Goal 3 (Good Health and Well-being), Goal 2 (Zero Hunger), and Goal 13 (Climate Action).
• Resource recovery from wastewater can mitigate climate change by avoiding uncontrolled methane emissions, substituting fossil fuels with biogas, replacing energy-intensive chemical fertilizers, and sequestering carbon in soils.
• The economic burden of inadequate sanitation is severe, costing an estimated 1.5% of global GDP, with higher losses in sub-Saharan Africa (4.3%) and South Asia (2.9%).
• Technical sustainability requires a whole-system approach tailored to local conditions, integrating the user interface, collection, conveyance, treatment, and resource recovery functions.
• Source separation of waste streams (e.g., separating urine from faeces and greywater) is a cost-efficient way to facilitate resource recovery, as it allows for more targeted treatment and higher nutrient concentrations.
• Human health risks in resource recovery can be managed through a multi-barrier approach and Sanitation Safety Planning (SSP), which identifies and mitigates exposure points along the entire sanitation chain.
• Environmental protection requires both end-of-pipe treatment and upstream control to prevent nutrients and hazardous substances (such as pharmaceuticals and heavy metals) from causing eutrophication and ecosystem damage.
• Effective governance for resource recovery requires moving beyond technology-specific mandates to geographic jurisdictions and involving a diverse range of stakeholders, including farmers and energy providers.
• Meeting SDG targets for safe WASH by 2030 is estimated to cost between US$74 billion and US$166 billion per year globally, with O&M costs expected to be similar to capital expenditures.

APA

K., A., A., R., B., L., E., K., J., M., R., S., S., D., & C., T. (2020). SANITATION, WASTEWATER MANAGEMENT AND SUSTAINABILITY. Stockholm Environment Institute. https://www.sei.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/sanitation-wastewater-management-and-sustainability-by-sei-and-unep.pdf

Chicago

K., Andersson,, Rosemarin, A., Lamizana, B., Kvarnström, E., McConville, J., Seidu, R., Dickin, S., and Trimmer, C. SANITATION, WASTEWATER MANAGEMENT AND SUSTAINABILITY. Stockholm Environment Institute, 2020. https://www.sei.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/sanitation-wastewater-management-and-sustainability-by-sei-and-unep.pdf.

Wikipedia

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BibTeX

@techreport{k2020sanitation, author = {K., Andersson, and A., Rosemarin, and B., Lamizana, and E., Kvarnström, and J., McConville, and R., Seidu, and S., Dickin, and C., Trimmer,}, title = {{SANITATION, WASTEWATER MANAGEMENT AND SUSTAINABILITY}}, institution = {Stockholm Environment Institute}, year = {2020}, url = {https://www.sei.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/sanitation-wastewater-management-and-sustainability-by-sei-and-unep.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }