This is NOT a "crappy" conversation!
Recently, there has been a lot of talk about an ecological sanitation system. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), an estimated 2.5 billion people have no access to safe, clean toilets and 1 billion are forced to defecate in the open. The devastating consequences of these practices include an estimated 1 million preventable deaths per year,
primarily from dysentery-like diarrheal diseases.
The American National Standardization Institute (ANSI) has proposed a New Work item on the ANSI Project Committee on Sustainable non-sewered sanitation systems. The international standard will define criteria to qualify sanitation systems sufficiently especially in terms of safety, functionality, reliability, maintainability, usability, and that the discharge (treated effluent) are compliant with leading practices. The aim of the standard is to ensure safety aspects related to the operation of the sanitation systems in the intended areas of use and that the treated discharged products pose no user, operator health or environment risks.
I have included an additional article and a video to highlight Canada's innovation and leadership in this area. But secretly, I am also hoping that next time you get the "urge" you start to think of how standardization can not only affect our basic needs but have a larger impact on our ecology as well.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ttFYlEF9as
http://www.gatesfoundation.org/What-We-Do/Global-Development/Reinvent-the-Toilet-Challenge
Comments
Re: This is NOT a "crappy" conversation!
One would hope that composting systems would be considered as a viable means of dealing with this in addition to adding value added nutrients back into the environment to improve agriculture possibilities instead of simply introducing another chemical that is not beneficial to the environment.
Re: This is NOT a "crappy" conversation!
Indeed!