The sanitation circle: How greenhouse gas reduction will help create climate resilient sanitation infrastructure

We are faced with a bleak climate future, greenhouse gas mitigation lays in the balance as governments across the globe struggle to make the hard decisions in reducing emissions. The sanitation sector is struggling to fund the necessary sanitation infrastructure needed globally to meet SDG targets on safe sanitation and reduction of preventable enteric disease.

Research into greenhouse gas emissions from sanitation systems has revealed a possible avenue to marry the two issues. Human waste and sanitation contribute to an estimated 14% of global methane emissions. Improved sanitation will have two effects on this: (1) Improved methane gas recovery in centralised treatment facilities and (2) reduction of methane emissions in non-sewered sanitation systems. We need better data within specific country/city contexts for sanitation infrastructure funders to make informed decisions on where to make these investments as currently there is no data beyond modelled estimations for the vast majority of the world.

This project will be carried out through a multi-pronged approach. Desk-based work will investigate the current methane capture and recovery systems globally and model potential benefits to emissions reduction and to decreased enteric pathogen prevalence. Lab work will categorize the biological potential of methane emissions from non-sewered sanitation systems and provide better understanding of the microbiological processes that generate these emissions. Field work will provide the raw data needed around methane and other greenhouse gas emission from sanitation systems that will be used to inform future models and estimations of global methane emissions.