Indigenously developed honey sucker in Bengaluru (Bangalore), south India. Photo: Vishwanath Sankrathai
The dumping of untreated faecal sludge in urban areas has been described as an ecological time bomb. In African cities, typically less than 15 percent of residents are served by centralised sewage systems, and figures for Asian countries are not much better. Yet there is a growing number of examples where re-use of urban faecal waste as fertiliser is linking city households and peri-urban farmers in a chain that provides both affordable sanitation and soil fertility. A recent study of sanitation services provided in Bengaluru (Bangalore), in southern India, suggests such approaches deserve to be legalised and scaled up within an appropriate legal framework to ensure the safety of farm workers and consumers.
Read the full article in the New Agriculturist, July 2012
See also:
- Slideshare presentation – “Honeysuckers – Sanitation solution from the informal sector“
- IRC Webinar – Commercial productive use of faecal sludge in Bengaluru
- YouTube videos “Honeysucker” and “S. Vishwanath on ‘Honeysuckers’, an alternative sanitation approach” (see below)
Sanitation Updates 