Poor sanitation is a significant cause of the climate crisis, and not many people are aware of this. Two recently released studies show that uncontrolled sewage and a lack of proper waste disposal operations are among the greatest contributors to global warming.
Poorly managed existing wastewater treatment systems and non-sewer sanitation systems like pit latrines and septic tanks produce high quantities of greenhouse gas emissions much more than expected, says Barbara Evans, a Professor of Public Health Engineering from the University of Leeds.
Dr. Evans said in an interview with Safisana, “Improvement of the operation, management, and maintenance of existing wastewater treatment and non-sewer sanitation systems in developing countries has a significant impact on the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions on a global scale.”
Safisana a sustainable waste management company near Accra is therefore assessing the carbon footprint and climate impact of the Safisana model regarding GHG emission reduction.
Founder Aart van den Beukel believes such “studies help policymakers understand the magnitude of the problem, and they encourage them to make sanitation one of the top priorities in their climate adaptation policies to ensure that the greenhouse gas emission reduction and avoidance target is achieved. We know that our model contributes to the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.”
Dr. Barbara Evans and the University of Science and Technology Beijing study revealed that globally, sanitation was estimated to contribute up to 4% of GHG emissions, which included methane (2–6%) and nitrous oxide (1-3%), respectively.
Knowing that nitrous oxide is 265 times more potent than CO2 in its contribution to global warming indicates the seriousness and scale of the sanitation impact on climate change. It illustrates the magnitude of sanitation’s effects on global warming.
Kampala citywide sanitation emission (Case study)
Last year, Dr. Evans also published a disturbing case study of what is referred to as citywide sanitation in Kampala, with much higher greenhouse gas emissions than previously anticipated. “It is worth noting that 189k metric tons of CO2 are emitted from sanitation in Kampala alone, making more than half of the total city-level emissions.”
Dr. Evans says that Kampala is a model city for urban sanitation, with emissions arising from the sanitation value chain in most urban slums of low-income countries, such as storage of faeces in septic tanks, discharge from tanks, and pits to open drains. Dr. Evans concludes that “all of these factors are leading to escalating greenhouse gas emissions.”
However, there is also good news. Active management almost eliminates emissions, according to the study Unlocking Carbon Credits for Sanitation by Container Based Sanitation Alliance (CBSA).
Active management involves effective operation and maintenance of existing systems, the emptying of latrines and tanks, and waste treatment services.
The study highlights the role that Container-Based Sanitation Alliance sanitation providers and waste treatment providers like Safisana can play in mitigating climate change and greenhouse gas emissions.
Currently, Safisana is calculating and certifying its circular solution’s carbon emission reduction and avoidance. Professor Evans confirms that recycling solutions like Safisana, which capture methane, contribute to climate change mitigation in multiple ways:
- Methane is kept from escaping the atmosphere in an anaerobic digester such as ours by collecting and treating faecal waste.
- Gathering and handling food waste and organic materials: less waste should be disposed of in landfills, which also release enormous volumes of carbon and methane; at the moment, landfills are responsible for 18% of all anthropogenic emissions worldwide.
- Emissions are avoided through the production and application of biogas and organic fertilizer, which take the place of fossil fuels and chemical fertilizers.
Calculating climate impact
These assumptions, however, have to be converted into tangible and hard figures. Therefore, we have just engaged Ingenia Consultants and Engineers to quantify the Ashaiman plant footprint.
For all new projects and partnerships with the government and large industries for carbon reduction and emission avoidance, carbon footprint and impact calculations must receive approval and certification by an internationally recognized standard like the ISCC.
Michiel Bakkum, Head of Business Development at Safisana, who is leading the process, says, “It is a difficult and pioneering process.” An issue we encountered and solved was that faecal matter as a resource was not yet officially acknowledged, like, say, certified wastewater, as a category.
With this, we have succeeded in getting our product listed with ISCC as a first step. The subsequent step in this certification process will involve the baseline analysis of emissions with and without the use of, in this case, the Safisana solution.
In the coming months, an assessment will be conducted to establish the comparative impact or net result of Safisana.”
Carbon credits for sanitation
The Container-Based Sanitation Alliance’s (CBSA) study also considers the possibility of the sanitation sector joining the carbon credit market. To “understand whether carbon credits can become a viable income stream for sanitation providers and help to reduce the funding gap” that many sanitation service providers are facing, the study used CDM methodologies and IPCC default factors.
The results show some promise. Isabella Montgomery of CBSA says, “Carbon credits can be a significant step towards accessing other climate funds.”
Nevertheless, several factors, such as the high cost of certification, consultant fees, and the substantial monitoring burden, continue to reduce the likelihood of success for the numerous small-scale projects in the sanitation industry.
To increase the accessibility of carbon credits for CBS operators, CBSA is presently attempting to resolve these issues wherever feasible.
Safisana is working with CBSA members like Clean Team Ghana to make a real-time difference at our recycling pilot in Kumasi in the meantime.
We’re still in talks with Tamale’s toilet providers, Loowatt and Sama Sama, about how we can work together to treat faecal matter and jointly lessen environmental pollution and the impact of climate change.
The UN Climate Agreement states that to achieve 1.5°C global warming, greenhouse gas emissions must be reduced by 45% by 2030.
Credit: Safisana.org
