Basic household sanitation has long been outside the reach of cost-effective comprehensive solutions, especially in communities dependent on septic rather than sewage systems. But this is changing.

Groups as varied as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and a coalition of private-sector water technology interests are attacking the problems of fecal sludge management, or FSM, particularly in underserved communities.

Thanks to innovative products and platforms and the collaboration of the Asian Development Bank Institute, the technology that moves water to bathrooms, taps, and kitchens worldwide is within reach of communities that don’t have complex and costly sewage systems.

David Robbins, a specialist in on-site and decentralized wastewater management, found that FSM’s efficiency and effectiveness—the hallmarks of modern sewerage systems—can now be used to attract the private sector into a fledgling sanitation economy that can overcome the many political roadblocks faced by communities without sewers.

Read the transcript

http://bit.ly/2Bbv7mC

Watch the full presentation

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87p35v-I2pA

About the speaker

David Robbins is a specialist in on-site and decentralized wastewater management, with an emphasis on fecal sludge management.