Plans to build sewerage works for the 1,2-billion people in the world who live without fresh water and sanitation should be abandoned, says Michael Rouse, the incoming president of the World Water Association.
Rouse, a civil servant who heads the United Kingdom’s drinking water inspectorate, believes that sewerage pipes are too expensive and too often drain into and pollute watercourses.
He suggests the world should revert to using human solid waste as compost and fertiliser, and allow liquids to drain into the ground.
These revolutionary ideas come from the man whose job it has been to guard drinking water quality in the UK since the privatisation of the water and sewerage industry. He is about to head the body that speaks for professional water regulators and engineers across the world.
Rouse is not against the United Nations’s drive to halve the number of people without fresh water and sanitation by 2015, a target agreed to at the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg last August.
But by his calculations the target means providing these services to 140 000 new people every day, which he considers impossible by traditional means.
Rouse believes that instead of such grandiose schemes that take years to plan and implement, community-led programmes should be encouraged.
Fresh water could be piped in for drinking, cooking and washing, and new-style, locally made toilets that separate the solid waste from the liquids could take care of sanitation. Reed beds or similar natural methods could clean the water before it is allowed to flow into the ground.
”If we started sanitation again from scratch in Britain, we would not do it the way we do now. Instead of flushing and piping all the waste away, we would collect the solids once a week like household rubbish, take it to a central depot and compost it.
”Eventually it would be used as fertiliser, itself a bonus in the developing world, which would be able to cut down on expensive chemical fertilisers,” he said.
Rouse believes the UN will fail without this fundamental change back to simpler methods.
He and his organisation advanced these ideas to the world’s water ministers at the World Water Forum in Kyoto, Japan, which began this week and is designed to turn last year’s world summit targets into reality.
To demonstrate that the ideas work, the World Water Association wants to develop five projects of dry sanitation for settlements of about 100 000 people in middle-income and poor countries within two years.
The development and demonstration of dry and low-water toilets, and of urine-separating toilets, should be subsidised. Projects should be started to develop local and international markets for organic products derived from waste.
Unlike some campaigners, Rouse does not believe water supplies should be free. The poorest in the world now pay the most for their water, often brought in by vendors who charge up to 10 times the cost of piped water for a product of uncertain quality.
Rouse says good, transparent government free from corruption is the key to providing water and sanitation successfully. He says an independent regulator needs to check water quality and price.
The key is to get highly motivated local communities to create their own systems, guided by professionals who will train them to take over the services. Everyone in each community should have access to clean piped water, toilets and a means to dispose of waste.
Rouse is determined to turn well-intentioned words into action: ”Too little is happening to have hope of reaching the targets, but I believe it is still possible if we can get these demonstration projects going, and then show it can work on a big scale.” — Â