New technology and knowledge sharing are essential to ensure that urban communities come up with sustainable water solutions, a green body today said.
Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) today organised India-South Africa Knowledge Sharing Workshop on Sustainable Water Solutions for Future which focused on mainstreaming faecal waste management and mainstreaming water-sensitive urban design and planning.
"New technology and knowledge-sharing are essential to ensure that urban communities learn from each other and come up with solutions that are sustainable," said Suresh Rohilla, CSE's Water Programme Director.
Noting that with increasing urban population, a sanitation crisis is growing, CSE said that a large amount of water is used in flushing human waste even as large numbers do not have access to toilets.
Rohilla said CSE's programme efforts had been directed towards meeting the twin goals of laying the foundations for a water-prudent society and adapting to climate resilience.
"We believe this experience needs to be leveraged to share solutions with other countries in the developing world from South America, Africa and Asia to meet the needs of urban populations in the current water and wastewater paradigm which are affordable and sustainable," he said.
The workshop brought together key functionaries from Water Research Commission (WRC) South Africa, RAND Water (the largest bulk water utility in Africa), South Africa Department of Science and Technology and participants from India including representatives from Urban Development, Environment, Water Resources Ministries and others.
Discussing technology for eliminating waste at the source, Dhesigen Naidoo from WRC said the provision of full waterborne systems may not be realistic or achievable in the short term and even in the long term in many developing countries.
Naidoo said there was a need for next-generation toilet
technology and moving away from the current 'flush-and-dispose' and 'drop-and-store' models.
"We cannot continue to flush away valuable and scarce fresh water, creating more downstream challenges in terms of water treatment and water quality," he said.
A presentation given by Rohilla showed that the current method of faecal management was "capital-intensive" and created and maintained a divide between the rich and the poor.
"Inadequate water supply in this area results in exploitation of ground water. Besides, Dwarka also suffers from flooding," he said.
Jayant Bhagwan from WRC highlighted some of the new innovation and tools in the management of faecal sludge by the Ethekweni Metro.
A CSE analysis said that for the past many years, developing countries were struggling to find solutions to the immediate problems of poverty, hunger, water scarcity, pollution and climate change and it was important therefore, to interlink global experience.
Christine Moe from Emory University said rapid urbanization in urban and peri-urban areas of low-income countries had led to a growing sanitation crisis.
Despite the considerable sanitation needs of urban and peri-urban communities, there was little data to inform strategies to mitigate risks of faecal exposure in developing countries.
