5th international BNS Expert Workshop on the topic "Innovating Emergency Sanitation"

Duration: 2009
Donor: Lafez and BMZ

Background:
Considering recent numbers and frequencies of natural disasters such as earthquakes, floods and typhoons as well as humanitarian crisis caused by warfare both leading to large numbers of displaced people, there is evidence that the number of displaced people living in semi-permanent shelters is on the rise. According to the UN, natural disasters affected 130 million people in 2008 and the number of refugees and displaced people increased by 14 % to 9.9 million people in 2006.

However, for the majority of people living in emergency accommodations this is not a short but a longer lasting stay. It is estimated that about 80% of all camps and emergency accommodations are utilized more than one year with a barely minimum provision of basic sanitation infrastructure. While the supply of drinking water is often ensured during the early stages of interventions by international emergency agencies, unhygienic disposal of human excrements and faeces poses a continued challenge and threatens public health.

This becomes especially critical in larger and densely populated emergency settlements where a safe discharge of domestic wastewater beyond the settlement boundaries cannot be assured.
Synergies for emergency sanitation may evolve from development organisations working in the WatSan sector that have field-tested and demonstrated various dry- and water-based on-site and decentralized sanitation systems successfully during the last decade (e.g. ECOSAN Dry Toilets, Community Sanitation Centres). Beside added value on the technical level, the ability of facilitating agencies to cope with the specific demands for sanitation infrastructure during natural disasters and human caused catastrophes is the key for successful improvements.

The interest of The Bremen Overseas Research & Development Association (BORDA) in this field is caused by its 30 years of experience of working as an expert facilitating organization in the field of decentralized Basic Needs Services (BNS). Supported by the German Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation & Development, BORDA’s portfolio takes into account the demands of communities, institutions and small and medium enterprises for long lasting, workable solutions that function properly at low cost for operation and maintenance costs.
BORDA and its partners have facilitated the implementation of more than 900 Decentralized Wastewater Treatment Systems (DEWATS) and Community Sased Sanitation Projects (CBS) in Asia and southern Africa since 1999. Based on these experiences and on the occasion of its involvement in reconstruction measures after the Tsunami and the Indonasian Earthquake disaster, BORDA started to develop prefabricated DEWATS and toilet module solutions made from glass-fibre, ferro-cement or cargo container solutions. The up-to-date versions of this options will be presented at the workshop.

Aim:
The objective of the expert workshop is to establish communication, facilitate professional exchange and initiate co-operations between sanitation practitioners and emergency sanitation agencies that ultimately may lead to improvements in sanitations services and public health within emergency settlements.
Based on the important role of sanitation for the health and hygiene situation in emergency accommodations and refugee camps the leading questions of the workshop are:

What is the scope and what are the limitations of conventional sanitation practices and infrastructure options within emergency settlements?
Which key factors determine the state of hygiene and health in emergency settlements?
What additional features and appliances are needed to improve emergency sanitation services and infrastructure?

Activity:
The planning and carrying out of the expert workshop is the main activity of BORDA in this field. 20-25 experts and practitioners from relevant German and European emergency, development and research institutions are invited to give speeches and presentations on the topic of emergency sanitation. The presentations are divided into three different blocks:

Block 1: Challenges of Emergency Sanitation
Block 2: Conventional and good sanitation for emergencies
Block 3: New developments and solutions in the sanitation sector

After the presentations the workshop will enhance communication and discussions between the participants. The possibilities of cooperation’s between the participants organizations should be discussed, as well.

Outcome:
As he overall outcome, the workshop is supposed to deliver is the first step for the improvement of emergency sanitation worldwide. Especially the establishment of contact and communication between sanitation practitioners and emergency sanitation agencies is important for a worldwide improvement. In the next step pilot projects should be planned and carried out in cooperation between these two sides.
By such co operations the improvement of the living conditions of people that suffer from disasters should be improved soon.