November 19th 2024 is World Toilet Day! This year’s theme, “Toilets: A place for peace”, emphasizes the importance of safe and secure sanitation facilities, which are essential to our daily lives.
Unfortunately, billions of people face threats to sanitation due to conflict, climate change, natural disasters, and neglect, leading to a global sanitation crisis. Currently, 3.6 billion people live with inadequate toilets that harm their health and/or pollute the environment. Conflicts and extreme weather can disrupt sanitation services, and when toilet systems fail or are absent, untreated human waste contaminates the environment, spreading deadly diseases like cholera. It is therefore crucial for governments to ensure that sanitation and water services are resilient, effective, and accessible to all.
In line with this mission, University of Brighton researchers Prof James Ebdon and Dr Diogo Gomes Da Silva have been participating in an innovative project funded by the Humanitarian Innovation Fund (HIF) called Project SMaRT (Safer Management and Reliable Treatment of faecal sludge in emergencies).
Based at a Faecal Sludge Treatment Plant (Figure 1) on the outskirts of the Rohingya refugee camp in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, this collaboration with Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) and local partner BRAC Humanitarian Crisis Management focused on developing practical solutions for the handling and disposal of faecal sludge during humanitarian crises.
The project also sought to optimize the use of mineral lime (Ca(OH)₂) for treating faecal sludge, providing a reliable method to manage increases in human waste during crises and to prevent disease transmission in healthcare facilities.
Initial findings indicated that certain groups of bacteriophages (viruses that infect bacteria) show promise for field-based deployment to assess treatment performance; effectively detecting pathogen removal in faecal sludge.
Additionally, the research is helping to establish optimal ratios of lime per litre of faecal sludge to significantly reduce pathogenic loads and tailor lime-based treatments for various humanitarian contexts.
The project’s field and lab work concluded in September 2024, and the findings are currently being written up following data analysis. As we wrap up this project, we look forward to sharing key findings and equipping the humanitarian community with the knowledge and tools necessary to deliver effective sanitation solutions for emergencies, anywhere and anytime they occur.
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