Following the call for application for 2015 Global Youth Eco-Leadership Summit to be held in Seoul,  Korea next year I have been thinking about water issues that affect my country Kenya. One thing that crossed my mind was the challenges associated with water, sanitation and health as a result of high urbanization rate experienced in major parts of the country due to population increase. WHO report indicates that 2.4 billion people worldwide do not have access to basic sanitation: they lack safe means of disposal of excreta and waste water.

Like many other cities across Africa, Asia and Latin America, onsite technologies like pit latrines, unsewered public ablution blocks, septic tanks, aqua privies and dry toilet  have much wider coverage than sewer systems .These non-sewered systems generate a mix of solid and liquid wastes generally termed as “fecal sludge.”  In most part of the urban Nairobi residential areas, it’s common to see a waste collection and transport trucks commonly known as “exhauster” coming in and leaving .Households pay for professional emptying services, however only about 40% of the fecal sludge collected ends up in waste collection treatment facilities.

Lack of proper fecal sludge management normally  results to significant negative public health and environment when this fecal waste is allowed to accumulate in poorly designed pit latrines ,some of the untreated waste ends up discharged into nearby streams, rivers and lakes thus a health hazard .

Did you know that Diarrhea is the second leading cause of child death in the world today?  It’s actually the top cause of child mortality in sub-Saharan Africa. Most waterborne feacal  -oral diseases like diarrhea and typhoid are caused by poor sanitation, hygiene, or dirty drinking water contaminated with fecal sludge.

From literature review the topic on water and sanitation is really big, but it generally involves:

1.       safe collection, storage ,treatment and disposal/re-use/recycling of human excreta (feaces and urine)

2.       drainage and disposal/re-use/recycling of household wastewater (often referred to as sullage or

3.       grey water)

4.       treatment and disposal/re-use/recycling of sewage effluents

5.       collection and management of industrial waste products and hazardous wastes (including hospital wastes, and chemical/ radioactive and other dangerous substances).

Fecal sludge management is therefore essential to the future of global sanitation. Overcoming these problems requires a system approach that addresses every step of the entire value chain and integrates technology, management and planning .Onsite technologies can be viable option but only made possible by increasing the effectiveness and efficiency in storage, collection, transport, treatment and safe end use or disposal of fecal sludge.