This World Toilet Day, we’re spotlighting innovative and unconventional solutions to accelerate change and achieve universal access to sustainable sanitation services where it is most needed. As it emerged from the 1st IWA Conference on Non-Sewered Sanitation (NSS) recently held in Johannesburg, South Africa, on 16-18 October 2023, off-grid sanitation solutions can be a game changer for those still lacking access to safely managed sanitation. 

Millions of people around the world do not have proper sanitation facilities. The statistics are alarming: approximately 4.2 billion people, over half of the global population, lack access to safely managed sanitation. We have reached the halfway mark of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in 2030. However, progress has stagnated, is unevenly distributed between countries, and is inadequate to eliminate the inequalities to ensure that the most vulnerable are reached. Inadequate sanitation has far-reaching consequences, posing significant health risks, environmental pollution, ecosystem degradation, and human rights violations.  

According to a recent Joint Monitoring Programme (JMP) Report, achieving universal coverage by 2030 will require a sixfold increase in current rates of progress for safely managed drinking water, a fivefold increase for safely managed sanitation, and a threefold increase for basic hygiene services. The next seven years have been referred to as a sprint to achieve the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.  

The next 20 years will be a golden age for wastewater and sanitation, now is the time for #SanitAction. This year’s World Toilet Day’s focus on Accelerating Change reminds us of the urgent need to speed up progress in ensuring access to safe and dignified sanitation for all. It provides an opportunity to highlight a global issue often overlooked but crucial for human well-being: sanitation. Adequate access to clean and safe sanitation facilities is a fundamental human right, a cornerstone of public health, and a catalyst for positive change in diverse aspects of life. 

The 1st IWA Conference on Non-Sewered Sanitation: A Game Changer 

The just concluded 1st IWA Non-Sewered Sanitation (NSS) Conference couldn’t have been more than timely as we take stock of the progress registered thus far towards achieving the SDGs, particularly SDG 6.2. It provided an opportunity to reflect on the sanitation service inequality that still plagues our world.

The NSS Conference offered the much-needed space for innovative thinking and discussions on off-grid solutions for sanitation, which are critically important to address the significant service delivery gaps not met by conventional centralised systems. What we’ve learned from the conference is that the status quo is not an option and 19th-century solutions won’t work anymore. As such, we need to rethink sanitation and move towards more off-grid, decentralised, and circular approaches.  

The topics discussed spanned from innovative technologies, financing models, governance, and capacity building to urban sanitation approaches including nature-based solutions, climate-resilient approaches, City-wide Inclusive Sanitation, and the fundamental role of research. The event offered a diverse group of delegates and a great line-up of distinguished speakers and experts who shared insights, experiences, and knowledge. The African Development Bank and African Water Facility shared insights  about the “Africa Urban Sanitation Investment Initiative (AUSII)” – a new sanitation-focussed financing window to support City Wide Inclusive Sanitation (CWIS) in Africa’s cities and urban areas. It is great to see increased and dedicated funding and investments towards sanitation, and such funds including the AUSII are needed to enhance the efforts of African governments to meet the targets of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for water and sanitation. In another workshop, a team of experts from the University of Technology Sydney – Institute for Sustainable Futures (UTS-ISF) and the University of South Florida, presented an innovative approach – ClimateFIRST – for designing climate-resilient non-sewered sanitation technologies. The approach involves a process that considers how climate-related hazards can affect sanitation technology and how the risks of these hazards can be reduced through technology design. 

The Role of Integrated Urban Services Planning in the Sanitation Revolution

It was also impressive to witness the participation of non-sanitation experts and stakeholders, particularly urban planners, housing, and development sector representatives, in such an exclusive sanitation event. This proves that sanitation is a critical component of and is intrinsically linked to water supply, wastewater, drainage, and solid waste management – all of which are critical service delivery components of urban planning and development. There is growing evidence and discussions supporting this, including the recently published reports by UN-Habitat on “Global Report on Sanitation and Wastewater Management in Cities and Human Settlements”; Advancements in and Integration of Water, Sanitation, and Solid Waste for Low- and Middle-Income Countries; To integrate or not to integrate? Water and waste as unified basic services; and IWA’s publication on Lessons Learnt: Regulating for CWIS. I would like to believe that we can only be able to fast-track progress in this second half of the SDG era if we deliberately adopt a more integrated, multi-disciplinary and multi-sectoral approach to address the global sanitation challenges albeit the increasing effects of climate change and urbanisation. We need a paradigm shift to change the status quo – let’s stop speaking to ourselves as sanitation experts and involve all key stakeholders. 

Accelerating Change: The Global Acceleration Framework and SanitAction 

“Accelerating Change” suggests a sense of urgency and ambition. It encourages governments, organisations, and communities to step up their efforts.  

A ray of hope beams over the horizon – we have a starting point. The UN-Water has developed an SDG 6 Global Acceleration Framework: a unifying initiative designed to deliver fast results. The five accelerators (financing, governance, capacity development, innovation, and data and information) provide a valuable framework for achieving accelerated, coordinated progress on sanitation. Importantly, the five accelerators are cross-cutting and interdependent; work under one may overlap with others. The framework also requires a collaborative approach leveraging public-private partnerships. As many countries, cities, towns, and communities are at different levels of progress, the priority interventions will vary from context to context, thus the framework should be contextualised and localised. 

This World Toilet Day 2023 underscores the urgency and importance of addressing sanitation issues worldwide. It’s a call to action for governments, UN Agencies, civil society organisations, the private sector, academia and individuals to redouble their efforts to ensure that everyone, everywhere can enjoy their basic right to proper sanitation. Let’s unite in our efforts to accelerate change and achieve universal access to sustainable sanitation services. Join the SanitAction movement and be a part of the solution. Share your thoughts, ideas, and actions using #SanitAction and together, let’s leave no one behind in the pursuit of inclusive urban sanitation for all.

International Women’s Day is celebrated annually on 8 March, highlighting the achievements of women worldwide while also calling for greater gender equality. One critical area where gender disparities are still prevalent is in the access to water and sanitation services, which disproportionately affects women in low- and middle-income countries. In many places, poor sanitation practices place significant barriers on women, making it challenging for them to access basic needs such as water, sanitation, and hygiene.  

Poor sanitation as a barrier for women and girls 

The impact of poor sanitation on women in low- and middle-income countries is multifaceted. In these countries, access to basic sanitation facilities is often limited, with millions of people lacking access to safe and clean toilets. This can have significant health implications for women, including increased rates of urinary tract infections and other diseases. Additionally, inadequate sanitation facilities can also make it difficult for women to manage their menstrual hygiene, which can lead to embarrassment and stigma, as well as increased risk of infection. 

The lack of proper sanitation facilities can also impact women’s safety. In many places, women are forced to use open fields or other outdoor spaces as makeshift toilets, which can leave them vulnerable to sexual harassment, assault, or even animal attacks. This is especially true for women who must venture out alone at night to use the bathroom, putting them in danger. 

Moreover, poor sanitation can also have an economic impact on women. When women must spend a significant amount of time and energy collecting water, searching for a safe place to relieve themselves, or caring for family members who are sick due to poor sanitation, they have less time to devote to income-generating activities, which can perpetuate the cycle of poverty. This lack of these basic necessities can lead to girls missing school and women being unable to work or participate in other daily activities, which has a significant impact on their social and economic empowerment. 

So, what can be done to address these issues?  

First and foremost, there must be greater investment in improving sanitation infrastructure in low- and middle-income countries. This includes the construction of safe and clean toilets, as well as the provision of clean water and proper waste management systems. In addition, more needs to be done to address the stigma around menstruation, including promoting the use of affordable and environmentally friendly menstrual hygiene products, such as reusable pads and menstrual cups.

WaterAid India’s brief report ‘Menstrual Hygiene Management: Informed Product Choice and Disposal’ aims to create awareness regarding the menstrual product landscape in India for women and girls to start making an informed choice as per their needs. 

It is also important to engage women themselves in the process of improving sanitation. Women’s voices and experiences should be central to the development of sanitation policies and programmes. This includes working with women to develop innovative and culturally appropriate solutions, as well as involving them in the planning and decision-making processes. 

Finally, we must also work to address the underlying gender inequalities that contribute to poor sanitation outcomes for women. This includes challenging harmful social norms that perpetuate gender-based violence, discrimination, and exclusion, and promoting women’s leadership and empowerment at all levels of society. 

In conclusion, poor sanitation is a significant barrier to the health, safety, and economic well-being of women in low- and middle-income countries. By investing in improved sanitation infrastructure, engaging women in the process of change, and addressing underlying gender inequalities, we can work towards a world where all women have access to the basic sanitation facilities they need to thrive. Doing more to improve sanitation means doing more for a world that is more equitable, diverse and inclusive.

This International Women’s Day, let’s commit to #SanitAction and #EmbraceEquity to ensure that all women have the dignity and respect they deserve. 

Date: Wednesday, 22 March 2023​

Time: 11:00-12:15 EST (Eastern Standard Time)​

Location: UN Headquarters, Side Event Room B​

Registration: Event open only to UN Water Conference registered delegates​

Background

The 2022 Sustainable Development Goals Report exposed some very concerning data about the world’s progression towards SDG6, showing that meeting WASH targets by 2030 will require a fourfold increase in the pace of progress. Metrics about safely managed sanitation are particularly alarming, sending a clear message that current policies and practices are not working, and immediate action must be taken.

There is an urgent need for an accelerated and inclusive approach to expanding safe sanitation service coverage. Multiple technologies are available for achieving this – both sewered or onsite, centralised or decentralised. But mere technology choices do not ensure the end users will benefit as they should. Governments must lead by taking a wider perspective into consideration, including the governance mechanisms, the laws and regulations that clarify the mandate for safe and inclusive services, understanding how authorities and private sector operators can be organized and incentivized, and how individual contributions and needs must be aligned and supported to also ensure that environmental public health goals are being met.

Description of the session

The session on Cross-sectoral partnerships to accelerate progress towards inclusive sanitation will look beyond technology and the usual focus on building infrastructure and discuss how to adopt a holistic approach to create a conducive policy, legal, institutional, and regulatory environment that enables and incentivizes accelerated progress towards safe sanitation services for all. Further, the session will also discuss and highlight the role and importance of science, innovation and development in bridging and shortening this pathway will be highlighted and shared.

Representatives from the public, private, and social sectors will bring to the table their perspectives on how cross-sectoral and intergenerational partnerships can collaborate to support national governments in achieving SDG 6.2 through: (1) developing enforceable policies, laws, regulations, and guidelines that clearly define roles, responsibilities, accountability mechanisms, and resources for planning, execution, and management for inclusive services; (2) building strong institutional arrangements that address equity, safety and sustainability targets; and (3) establishing finance planning and management institutions that are designed to shield these policies and institutions from political and economic instability.

Format of the session

The session will be designed to allow maximum debate among panellists and the audience. Panellists will have a limited amount of time – 3 to 5 minutes each – to make igniting pitches. The remaining time will be used for Q&A and discussions involving the audience. The format of the debate will be defined considering the room layout (if possible, using the world café or fishbowl format, to ensure inclusivity). The final 10 minutes of the session will be used for wrap-up, announcement of IWA’s voluntary commitment to advocate for inclusive sanitation agenda, and presentation of the SanitAction campaign – IWA’s call for collaborative action to reshape the global agenda on urban sanitation over the coming years.

The outcomes of this session will be used by the participants of the Youth4SDG6 fellowship programme as input for a joint IWA/Grundfos publication on the critical need for youth engagement in the implementation of the 2030 Agenda.

Key Partners

• Government of Brazil (National Water and Sanitation Agency) 
• Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF), USA 
• United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF)
• Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit GmbH (GIZ), Germany 
• Grundfos, Denmark 
• African Global Networks, South Africa 
• Water Youth Network, the Netherlands 
• International Secretariat for Water (SIE-ISW), Canada 

Panellists

• Kala Vairavamoorthy, International Water Association, United Kingdom
• Filipe Sampaio, National Water and Sanitation Agency, Brazil
• Brian Arbogast, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, USA
• Bisi Agberemi, United Nations Children’s Fund, USA
• Arne Panesar, Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit GmbH (GIZ), Germany
• Virginia Newton-Lewis, Grundfos, Denmark
• Jennifer Molwantwa, Water Research Commission, South Africa
• Maitreyi Koduganti, Water Youth Network, the Netherlands
• Vladimir Arana, International Secretariat for Water, Canada
• Kelvin Chitumbo, Eastern and Southern Africa Water and Sanitation (ESAWAS) Regulators Association, Zambia

I have travelled across multiple continents looking at (and using) toilets for my work with the SaniPath team.  Our team uses public health principles to understand how poor sanitation may result in increased risks of exposure to faecal contamination in the environment and the spread of infectious diseases in low-income rural and urban communities globally. It’s easy to have an “out of sight, out of mind” attitude when it comes to faeces. Those of us privileged enough to have access to improved sanitation facilities and live in areas serviced by sewers probably spend very little time thinking about what happens after we use the toilet. However, if there is anything my work has taught me, it’s that faeces are not always out of sight, and even if they are, they certainly shouldn’t be out of mind.

According to the World Health Organization and UNICEF’s Joint Monitoring Program, almost half of the World’s population does not have access to a safely managed sanitation system. This means they don’t have a toilet that safely contains bodily waste and that is then treated on site (e.g., in a septic tank) or off site (e.g., at a wastewater treatment plant). Of the 3.6 billion people who still lack access to basic sanitation services worldwide, about 1.7 billion lack even basic services or have limited services, still practice open defecation, or use toilets where faeces are not safely managed. Where safe management of faeces is not available, it directly flows into open drains, canals, or other bodies of water.  It can also stay in the residential environment, contaminating surfaces, play areas, bodies of water where people may swim or fish, and even contaminate our food through poor hygiene and irrigation with wastewater.

This year the theme for World Toilet Day 2022 is “Making the Invisible Visible”- to highlight the connection between sanitation and groundwater, which is often overlooked. The work we have done with SaniPath in collaboration with partners across the globe has shown just how inadequate sanitation can spread faecal contamination in the rivers, lakes, and soil, which can all impact groundwater quality. The figure below shows the relative risks of exposure to faecal contamination from 9 different environmental pathways in 10 cities across the globe. Surface waters contribute significantly to this risk in communities in several different cities, including Kampala (Uganda), Dhaka (Bangladesh), Kumasi (Ghana), Lusaka (Zambia), and Siem Reap (Cambodia) among other cities in emerging economies. Our work has also shown very high E. coli levels from public spaces as well.

The public health ramifications of such exposures can be large. Poor water, sanitation, and hygiene are strongly associated with several poor health outcomes. These include:  diarrhoeal disease, intestinal worms, and vector-borne diseases (diseases transmitted through another living organism). According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, diarrhoeal diseases alone are responsible for the deaths of 2,195 children every day—more than AIDS, malaria, and measles combined.  Even where diarrhoeal diseases do not result in death, with repeated infections, studies have shown that children can develop environmental enteric dysfunction (the inability of the gut to absorb nutrients), which can in turn lead to malnutrition.  Illness results in missed days of school or work, a weakened immune system, and poor community health.

We cannot ignore the interconnectedness of the environment, health and sanitation. The worsening effects of climate change only exacerbates issues of water and sanitation and poses new challenges in developing sustainable solutions. For example, rising sea levels result in increased flooding in climate vulnerable communities, overflowing toilets and septic tanks polluting our groundwater. Toilets are important, but we also need to be thinking outside the toilet— recognising how poorly contained faeces can affect the living environment and our water resources.

Throughout the pandemic, the water sector has played its regular vital role in ensuring essential services keep running. It has also helped through the emerging area of wastewater surveillance, with the pandemic providing an enormous opportunity for use of Wastewater-based Epidemiology (WBE).

Even before COVID-19, the water industry was used to addressing enteric pathogens including viruses in water supply and sanitation. For this reason, there was a high level of confidence from early on that SARS-CoV-2 did not present a major threat for drinking water supplies. As the pandemic gathered pace, the water science community responded at speed to provide knowledge to help fill in the gaps on the new pathogen, SARS-CoV-2. This does have its own unique characteristics, and the community worked to fill gaps in areas such as risks of faecal-oral transmission of SARS-CoV-2, the survival of the virus in sewage, and potential transmission by aerosols.

Progress was supported by a willingness to cooperate and share data and insights. This willingness was illustrated well by the way the IWA COVID-19 Task Force brought together leading experts in a webinar to share their experiences of using a range of methods to identify and track SARS-CoV-2 Variants of Concern (VoC) in wastewater in their countries.

This willingness is also very evident in an initiative in which Michigan State University, KWR Water Research Institute, the University of California Merced, Venthic Technologies, and PATH are collaborating to develop the Wastewater SARS Public Health Environmental Response, or W-SPHERE. This is a newly launched global centre for data and for public health use cases on SARS-CoV-2 in wastewater. Its mission is to advance environmental surveillance of sewage, informing local and global efforts for monitoring and supporting public health measures to combat COVID-19. Sewage provides a window to view trends in community infection, earlier and more objectively and efficiently than other surveillance systems and has the potential to assist in public health decisions. Initiatives such as this can benefit society greatly and are also a leading example of useful knowledge sharing across countries. Read more in The Source.

Today, the emergence of the omicron variant has shown how COVID-19 still poses a major challenge to societies hoping to bounce back after long months of lockdowns and restrictions. The highly infectious omicron variant, first detected in Southern Africa in November 2021, quickly spread throughout the globe in a matter of weeks, leading countries such as France to report as many as 300,000 new cases in a single day. The US Center for Disease Prevention and Control estimates that the omicron variant went from making 8% of all new cases for the week ending December 11 to approximately 95.4% for the week of December 26 – January 1, showing a very rapid and exponential increase.

Given this speed, it is now more essential than ever for the water sector to be able to share experiences and data across countries, also taking into account that methodologies and data interpretation may need to be adjusted. Experiences will be shared in the webinar taking place on 12 January about the omicron variant (which will also be available on-demand at a later date), and also at the forthcoming LET conference.

The science is expanding dramatically at the interface of new technology, public health and wastewater collection and management.  This means that we have been able to monitor the influx of Delta and now the Omicron variants into the population and this opens the door for understanding much more about community health than ever before.

New research in these areas will be presented at the LET Conference in Reno, United States on 27 March – 2 April 2022. There is a dedicated track on Wastewater-Based Epidemiology, offering a great opportunity to expand your knowledge on this emerging and ever more prominent area of scientific research. I hope to see as many of you there and share experiences and new insights about SARS-CoV-2 variants in wastewater and WBE.

Early bird registrations are open until 31 January 2022, so grab your tickets now!

Despite recent progress, we’re still facing a global sanitation crisis. According to WHO/UNICEF currently almost half of the global population (46%) still does not have access to safely managed sanitation services. Reaching SDG 6.2 may seem like an unattainable objective, especially in critical regions where progress has been lagging, namely sub-Saharan Africa and Central and Southeast Asia. But there are technologies that could be game-changers for providing sustainable and safe sanitation for all by 2030. Emerging technologies can provide outstanding opportunities for sustainable solutions from a technical point of view. Nevertheless, most of the solutions face barriers in terms of social acceptance and/or affordability and stop at pilot-scale levels, leading to missed opportunities.

Regional Sanitation Coverage During 2015-2020. Source: WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Program For Water Supply, Sanitation And Hygiene 2000-2020

The theme for World Toilet Day 2021 is about valuing toilets. Valuing toilets also means reconsidering our approach to economic, social, and cultural aspects which are currently hindering the provision of sustainable sanitation systems for all. Understanding the sanitary demands of a community and choosing accordingly the most sustainable and appropriate technology can be a game-changing step towards SDG6. According to UNICEF, approximately 30-50% of sanitation projects fail after two to five years because of applying inappropriate or unaffordable technical approaches and lack of reasonable monitoring and services. One reported example is the case of the use of eco-toilets in the Chinese Daxing Ecological Community in 2004-2009. There are a number of reasons why this happens, but there are steps that can be taken to ensure that innovations are properly evaluated and fit for success.

Most approaches aim at a one-size-fits-all solution, which neglects important social and cultural aspects such as acceptability and affordability of the solution in the community where it is going to be implemented. We need to remind ourselves that sustainable sanitation is a global problem with local solutions.

Sanitation systems such as the Resource Circulated Sanitation system, first developed in South Korea and designed for utilisation in remote and rural areas, can be seen as a good example of a sustainable, resource-oriented sanitation technology that treats sanitary waste (urine and faeces) as a valuable resource that can be economically beneficial to the community in the form of fertilizer. In this approach, traditional Korean toilet culture and attitudes towards separating waste at source and reusing waste were considered. Using treated sanitary matter as fertilizer and soil conditioner demonstrated both environmental and economic benefits. To boost social acceptance and a sense of ownership and responsibility towards the new system in the community, continuous provision of maintenance services and training were provided.

Resource Circulated Sanitation System: Winner of the Leaving No One Behind Innovation Award 2019, and Energy Globe Republic of Korea National Award 2019

Another challenge is when solutions are not properly evaluated with robust and reasonable indicators before implementation. Therefore, technical, economic, and social issues usually emerge after implementation and can lead to a project failing.

A useful tool to address this problem can be Hashemi’s Sanitation Sustainability Index, a recently developed community-based indicator to evaluate different sanitation options for a specific community based on the technical, economic, and social characteristics of the sanitation system.

Hashemi’s Sanitation Sustainability Index (HSSI)

Technologies to deliver SDG6.2 not only need developments from a scientific or technical point of view, but it is also more essential than ever to consider important economic and social aspects and gain a deeper understanding to deliver sustainable and tailored solutions which work for the communities. Valuing toilets is about valuing communities. Even though sanitation is a recognised human right, according to the UN the world urgently needs massive investment and innovation to quadruple progress all along the ‘sanitation chain’, from toilets to the transport, collection, and treatment of human waste. Moreover, the UN urges governments to include the people who are being left behind without access to toilets in planning and decision-making processes.

For more information on World Toilet Day, please visit the official campaign website: www.worldtoiletday.org 

Follow Shervin Hashemi on Twitter: @shervincee 

References available upon request

In the ongoing COVID 19 pandemic, some face masks used to control the spread of the virus as personal protective equipment (PPE) have become an emerging threat to water, aquatic life and the environment.

Most face masks contain plastics or other by-products of plastics materials. As such, increased usage of face masks, especially single-use ones, will eventually increase plastic pollution, which threatens marine and aquatic environments.

Most plastic particles are photo-oxidized when exposed to ultraviolet (UV) radiation, causing them to become brittle and fragment into microplastics. While heat, sunlight, and well-aerated conditions are ideal to produce microplastics via iterative fragmentation processes, the cold and anoxic conditions of aquatic environments and sediments can cause very slow degradation of plastic particles, which can last over centuries.

Conservationists have warned that the pandemic has contributed to a surge in ocean pollution, adding onto the existing plastic waste crisis. Aside from the formation of microplastics, wrongly disposed face masks can also have a direct effect on wildlife through direct and indirect ingestion – causing respiratory and gastrointestinal obstructions or death by starvation. If not properly cut, the string of face masks can also cause entanglements (see picture on the left – photo credit: Mary Caporal Prior).

Moreover, micro and nanoplastics from face masks not only harm wildlife but also pollute our water courses. Researchers have found that disposable masks could also be releasing dangerous pollutants, including heavy metals and toxic dyes.

These emerging challenges in solid waste management are being taken into account in novel academic studies as well as in environmental policies trying to find ways to contain the threat. It is necessary to plan and consider various options, such as specific separation, storage and collection strategies for recycling and appropriately disposing of face masks and medical waste in order to reduce plastic waste. Additionally, it is crucial to adopt alternative technologies to obtain more environmentally friendly PPE. In this scenario, a sustainable approach can focus on promoting the use of natural plant fibres in the production of face masks to obtain a biodegradable and compostable product.

Our fight against waste and the commitment to the reduce, reuse, recycle mantra contributes to reducing the over-exploitation of raw materials, which is more needed than ever. Governments are employing numerous international agreements to regulate on plastic pollution. Furthermore, upcycling face mask waste and producing construction materials from it (e.g. artificial aggregates, light weight plastic blocks and ecological mortar) can be another viable solution in the near future to repurpose plastic waste and reduce environmental and health impacts.

To encourage and promote the use of natural plant fibre face masks and to reduce the risk of the pandemic spreading to the environment from hospitals and communities, it is crucial to develop standardisation procedures and to strictly implement medical waste management guidelines. We urge governments and international organisations to prioritise funding for research & development of eco-friendly PPE, to implement clear quality standards for their fabrication and to design guidelines to manage hazardous waste like facemasks not just in medical settings but also in communities. Let’s solve this growing health and waste crisis together, with action today.

___________

What can YOU do?

• Consider buying a reusable mask or a mask made of natural fibre.
• Dispose your mask properly.
• Cut the strings to prevent entanglement for wildlife

This blog is part of a series about IWA Fellows and Distinguished Fellows, their career journeys and achievements, ambitions and the COVID-19 challenges in the water sector. In this article, IWA Distinguished Fellow Michael K. Stenstrom talks about his career and outlines his views on public health and the role of water management.

Covid-19 has reminded us of the close links between the environment, human actions and public health, that have too often been neglected. At the start of my career in the 1970s, seeing the effects of the Minamata Disease, which is caused by mercury poisoning, had a profound influence on me. This triggered my determination to focus on environmental engineering as a way to improve public health. The first ever Earth Day, the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency in the US and the Clean Water Act amendments are all moments that deeply inspired me.

While at Clemson University I met John Andrews, an environmental engineering professor, active IWA member and chief editor of Water Research who introduced me to the IWA. Since then, I have been determined to make a positive impact as an environmental engineer, researcher and educator, which has been possible thanks to IWA’s support.

My biggest achievement has been improving wastewater management for municipalities and industries in the most cost effective way. My work on aeration and the cooperation with manufacturers, municipalities, industries, and the ASCE oxygen transfer standard committee have improved aeration efficiency. This resulted in the reduction of energy consumption at treatment plants by as much as 50%, therefore also reducing their environmental impact.  In recent years I have been demonstrating to treatment agencies that operation at longer solids retention time, even when nitrification is not required, has economic and treatment benefits, including energy efficiency, trace organic removal and filtration efficiency. I am now focusing on antibiotic resistance at treatment plants and understanding how to mitigate or eliminate it.

I believe that the water sector can play a big role in fighting against the pandemic, for example from technologies that enable us to track COVID-19 in wastewaters. Tracking information about COVID-19 in wastewaters has showed us how infections can be detected and better managed. In this sense, COVID-19 can be seen as providing an opportunity to use and develop important tools to protect public health. A seminar titled “From MLVSS to Molecular Biology” by Professor Jenkins of University of California, Berkeley showed how advances in molecular biology can bring new concepts and tools to water protection. This new technology should help manage and reduce negative impacts of future pandemics too.

In the next 10 years I expect to continue researching, consulting and teaching. I hope that my work will continue to play a pivotal role in the industry and I hope to keep collaborating with treatment agencies to improve wastewater management. As an IWA Distinguished Fellow, I want to engage with governments to advocate for better water quality, especially in developing countries. My ambition is that effective water management can increasingly be seen as a way to improve and protect public health.