Issue link: http://psai.uberflip.com/i/842574
W EEKLY EDITION JUNE 28, 2017 Dispatch #1 from South Africa …continued Q: What have you learned so far? A: It's a really long way from Minneapolis to South Africa! It took 32 hours from the time I left to when I ar rived at my hotel. Boy, I was ready for bed after that. But seriously, the "sit down" meetings actually begin today, Wednesday, June 28 , and I will report more fully on them in the next couple of issues of Association Insight. Yesterday we spent the day v isiting a number of waste treatment sites currently testing new technologies. This week I'd like to share information about one of them. While the process for collecting fecal sludge and the technology for processing it wouldn't be exactly the same in Nort h America or Europe, the ideas have broad potential applicability once they are more fully proven. Urine Diversion Toilet Waste Removal and Processing using Black Soldier Fly Larvae (BSFL) Technology Beginning in 2002, eThekwini Mun icipality on the east coast of South Africa installed over 80, 000 Urine Diversion (UD) double vault toilets at the household level in rural areas of South Africa. While Urine Diversion is a technology we will cover in a future Association Insight article, today's concern is wh at happens to the fecal solids that build up after the urine is removed. Urine diversion toilet Urine diversion toilets are a great non - sewered solution for areas where sewer systems are neither available nor feasible. By diverting the urine, the fecal s ludge dries and builds up very slowly. This means waste from the units doesn't have to be removed more than once every few years. Still, it does have to be removed – and that is not something the users want to do themselves. Th r ough funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF), the eThekwini Municipality's Water and Sanitation Unit (EWS), together with a professional consulting team (Khanyisa Projects, Partners in Development and the University of KwaZulu - Natal's Pollution Research Group) began e xploring the use of business partnerships using incentivized contracts for the safe and efficient removal and disposal or processing of the UD contents. Emptying of a urine diversion toilet Solid waste from UD toilets is disposed by means of two options: 1. Where there is space on site and poor access, waste is buried on site and a tree is planted. 2. Where there is limited space, socio - political pressures and good access, solid waste is removed to a decentralized processing plant where valuable end products a re produced. PAGE 3 CONTINUED ON PAGE 4