A system perspective in sanitation – Human waste from cradle to grave and reincarnation

Reaching the Millennium Development Goals for Sanitation is a challenge. Numerous technological innovations have been developed in the last decade but, with innovation comes an increasing lack of consistency and increased communication difficulties. This is especially true in rural and peri-urban West Africa, where there is a desperate need for feasible sanitation systems and technologies which, in the site specific context, can achieve the intended objectives of health, hygiene and well-being. Network for the development of Sustainable Approaches for Large-Scale Implementation of Sanitation in Africa (NETSSAF) has developed a method for organizing and defining sanitation systems. The main goal is to assist in the decision making process to avoid fixed mind sets towards conventional solutions which to-date, have not always shown to be the best choice in a site specific context. The systematization shall also help avoid that some waste components (e.g. greywater or faecal sludge from on-site technologies) are forgotten in the planning and master plan development.