The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has identified Durban as a key location for toilet and waste innovation.
Image: Alon Skuy
Welcome to Durban, "the world's poop research centre".
The coastal city is not turning water into wine, but it is turning urine into fertiliser. It is also feeding humanfaeces to fly larvae and turning it into feed for fish and chicken.
Durban wants to turn poop and pee into big business.
The city's ambitious projects - which include waterless toilets, recycling waste water and selling it back to industry, and testing toilet prototypes from around the world - have earned it international accolades and backing from one of the world's richest men.
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has identified Durban as a key location for toilet and waste innovation.
The city is one of four sites worldwide choseThe coastal city is not turning water into wine, but it is turning
urine into fertiliser. It is also feeding humanfaeces to fly larvae and
turning it into feed for fish and chicken.
Durban wants to turn poop and pee into big business.
The city's ambitious projects - which include waterless toilets,
recycling waste water and selling it back to industry, and testing
toilet prototypes from around the world - have earned it international
accolades and backing from one of the world's richest men.
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation han by the foundation to support and test innovations in waste management. Five systems are set to begin testing early next year.
The risks posed by waste to public health are driving the innovation.
More than 1.5 million children in South Africa under six do not have access to sanitary toilet facilities and more than 4.3 million households rely on pit latrines.
Teddy Gounden is the strategic executive for research and innovation at eThekwini municipality's water and sanitation unit.
"In 2000 there was an outbreak of cholera in Durban."
"We were a new municipality and had inherited over 35,000 pit toilets, most of them filled to capacity. There was a threat to public health."
"We had to find more innovative solutions to the problem of human waste," he said.
The city has partnered with the Pollution Research Group at the University of KwaZulu-Natal to conduct research and test ways to provide better waste services for Durban residents. Gounden said Durban had one of the most successful recycling models, which was a public-private initiative.
"We have managed to recycle waste water to almost potable standards. This is then reused in the industrial process. It means we can reduce the purchase of bulk water and create a long-term revenue stream."
Some 48 megalitres of recycled waste water was created daily, bringing in a monthly income of around R570,000.
Durban also wants to put a price on its poop. A new sludge-processing plant treats the solid waste collected from "dry" toilets. Solids and liquids are disposed of separately at the plant.
Black soldier fly larvae feed off the waste and are used as feed for fish and chickens.
"It's still in the early stages, but the aim is to turn it into a business," said Gounden.
Dr Sudhir Pillay, research manager at the Water Research Commission, said the strategy was viable.
Dr Tina Velkushanova, research engineer at the Pollution Research Group, called Durban "the world's poop research centre". - Additional reporting by Matthew Savides
Source: Sunday Times