Skip to contentSkip to footer
Search
Collections

Citywide inclusive sanitation

A Palestinian girl showers her brothers in a plastic pot during a heat wave, in the Bedouin village of "Umm Al-Nasr" in the northern Gaza Strip, on July 14, 2022. Most services including clean water supply and sanitation are not connected to the area therfore families use all kinds of pots and containers to transport water into their houses.

Universal access to sanitation, as called for in Sustainable Development Goal 6, benefits not only human health and development, but also the environment. To ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all, new approaches that embrace both sewered and non-sewered systems are needed. The Citywide Inclusive Sanitation (CWIS) approach does not only consider the city in a holistic way, but also focuses on public services in an equitable, well-planned, properly managed, safe, sustainable, responsible, accountable and inclusive manner.

A dedicated research group, wastewater and faecal sludge laboratories, postdoctoral researchers, PhD fellows and MSc students work on CWIS at IHE Delft. Education and research on this topic, regularly conducted in partnership with universities in Africa, Asia and Latin America, focus on capacity development to benefit in particular the urban poor.

Work on CWIS is interdisciplinary and involves Institute’s researchers who focus on both technical aspects (such as urban drainage and sewerage, wastewater and sludge treatment, and faecal and septic sludge management), and non-technical aspects, including governance, organization, management, finance, business development, gender, diversity, and more. The Institute facilitates the implementation of the CWIS approach through advocacy, research, education and training.

Damir
City-wide inclusive sanitation is a promising approach that stretches far beyond the traditional technological solutions, and it can significantly contribute to progress toward SDG6. However, it requires a paradigm shift and change of mindset.
Damir Brdjanovic

The Institute offers both in-person and online sanitation education and training on CWIS. In 2018, the Institute and partners launched the Global Sanitation Graduate School (GSGS), the world’s largest network for postgraduate education on CWIS. In addition, the Institute hosts several Graduate Professional Diploma Programmes and wealth of online courses related to sanitation. These capacity development efforts aim to ensure that there is capacity to approach sanitation challenges with confidence, based on competence, knowledge and skills.

Highlighted projects

  • Stimulating Local Innovation on Sanitation for the Urban Poor in Sub-Saharan Africa and South-East Asia

    As part of this project, partner institutions in Africa and Asia enhanced their research capacity and facilities. In addition, an international academic network on pro-poor sanitation was established and innovations on sanitation for the urban poor were implemented. The project, which ran from 2011 to 2019, included masters, doctoral and postdoctoral research and courses for sector professionals in which more than 600 individuals were trained.

  • Accelerating the impact of education and training on non-sewered sanitation

    The project developed an interdisciplinary Master of Science Programme in Sanitation that was offered at IHE Delft from 2018 to 2022. From November 2022, the programme is part of the IHE Delft MSc in Water and Sustainable Development under the track Water & Health - profile Sanitation. Also, as part of the project, twelve online courses on sanitation were created and IHE Delft’s faecal sludge laboratory was established.

  • Global Sanitation Graduate School

    In partnership with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, IHE Delft and 42 academic institutions from Asia, Africa and Latin America worked together to establish the Global Sanitation Graduate School (GSGS) - a platform that facilitates the development and dissemination of knowledge on sanitation through postgraduate (MSc) programs, courses and tailor-made training. The GSGS strives to educate and train 10,000 sanitation professionals by the year 2030. 

  • eSOS Smart Toilet

    In disaster areas, safe sanitation is key to preventing the spread of disease and improving quality of life. IHE Delft and partners developed an award-winning eSOS Smart Toilet in 2017 that is not only hygienic, safe and affordable, but also can serve as a source of information. The lightweight, easy-to-maintain toilet, tested in the Philippines, features sensors that collect data to allow for the improvement of the operation and maintenance of the toilets. An improved prototype of the eSOS Smart Toilet was later tested and further validated in Nairobi.

  • Shit Killer

    IHE Delft and the Slovenian company Tehnobiro d.o.o. developed a novel technological concept for sterilization and dehydration of faeces and urine that uses microwave irradiation to convert pathogenic human waste into clean water and safe, dry fertilizer. The concept has been successfully tested in the Netherlands, Slovenia, Kenya, and pilot units were successfully evaluated in Jordan and Bosnia and Herzegovina between 2016 and 2022. The concept can handle faecal, septic and sewage sludge. It is quick to install and can be used in emergency situations and other settings.

  • MEDiLOO – where technology and public health meet

    IHE Delft supports the development of MEDiLOO, which combines toilets with non-invasive medical screening systems and data analysis to detect the spread of diseases at an early stage and monitor public health. MEDiLOO can improve sanitation management under challenging conditions, and is especially targeting major diseases prevailing in the Global South.

  • Use of brackish and seawater for sanitation in urban environments

    The Sulphate Reduction, Autotrophic Denitrification and Nitrification Integrated (SANI) process can reduce sewage sludge production by up to 90% while also minimizing energy consumption, odour and greenhouse gas emission. In addition, it can reduce the cost of sewage treatment by up to 50% and increase pathogen removal. The process is suitable for use in coastal zones, where it can treat wastewater and saline wastewater. IHE Delft and partners pioneered the first application of the SANI technology in Varadero, a tourist destination in Cuba.

  • Modelling study Poreč

    Following the construction of new sewerage, pumping stations, four wastewater treatment plants, and a central sludge treatment facility, the Croatian city of Porec worked with IHE Delft to conduct modelling to evaluate the infrastructure’s efficiency and to predict how it will operate until 2045. The project is one of the first examples of the application of integrated modelling at a large scale that includes sewage system, treatment plants and receiving waters.

  • Methods for faecal sludge analysis validation and sludge characterization database

    As part of this project faecal sludge laboratories in Africa and Asia evaluated the methods presented in the book ‘’Methods for Faecal Sludge Analysis”. As a result of the evaluation analytical protocols and procedures were updated and a web-based database on faecal and septic sludge characteristics established.

Key partnerships

IWA Publishing Best Scientific Book 2022 Award

The book Biological Wastewater Treatment: Principles, Modelling and Design, edited by Guang-Hao Chen, Mark C.M. van Loosdrecht, George A. Ekama and Damir Brdjanovic won the IWA publishing best scientific book of 2022 award. IHE Delft CWIS researchers contributed to chapters in the book. For a whole new generation of young scientists and engineers entering the wastewater treatment profession, this book assembled and integrated the postgraduate course material of professors from research groups around the world who have made significant contributions to the advances in wastewater treatment.

Cover of the book

Scientific publications

IHE Delft is recognized as a global leader in publishing research on sanitation, wastewater treatment and urban drainage and sewerage fields. Outputs include:

Meet our experts on citywide inclusive sanitation

IHE Delft’s international staff use their expertise to improve the global water situation. Some of them are listed here – find more in our staff directory.

Related