Linking the Water-Food-Energy Nexus to Sanitation Will it Save and Improve Lives?

• Published in: Water, Sustainable Development and the Nexus pp. 114 - 130
• Main Authors: Gabrielsson, Sara, Myers, Jamie, Ramasar, Vasna
• Format: Book Chapter
• Language: English
• Published: CRC Press 2020
• Subjects: Annan samhällsvetenskap; global south; Other Social Sciences; productive sanitation; rural sanitation; Samhällsvetenskap; Social Sciences; Social Sciences Interdisciplinary; Sustainability problems; Tvärvetenskapliga studier inom samhällsvetenskap; urban sanitation; Pit Emptying; Nexus Thinking; Environmental Enteric Dysfunction; EED; Water Energy Food Nexus; Productive Sanitation; WRC; Wash Sector; Vice Versa; Hermetia Illucens; Sanitation Challenge; Fs; Improved Sanitation; Open Defecation; Thermo Electric Power; Nexus Approach; Human Health Aspect; URT; Thermo Electric Power Plants; Resource Recovery; Water Food Energy Security; Sanitation Service Delivery; Unimproved Sanitation Facilities
• ISBN: 9781498786515; 0367776677; 9780367776671; 1498786510
• DOI: 10.1201/9781315155906-8

INTRODUCTION The world is facing increasing pressures on both ecological and human environments. Climate change, rapid urbanization, environmental degradation coupled with economic crises create changing conditions which mean that the world cannot continue with business as usual. With this as a backdrop meeting the ambitious targets set out in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) demand that we reduce long-term dependency on non-renewable resources through the adoption of innovative and adaptive systems promoting recycling and reuse (Cross and Coombes, 2013). Sanitation being one of the least prioritized areas on the global development agenda in the past, due to its high capital investment costs and inherent complexity in behaviour change, technology adoption and implementation, has recently been given more attention for its multiple benefits to human development, when linked to other productive sectors such as energy and agriculture (Drechsel et al., 2011). Nevertheless, global sanitation statistics make depressing reading. The Joint Monitoring programme, a joint initiative between the World Health Organisation and UNICEF, reported that in 2015 2.3 billion people lacked even basic sanitation of which 892 million people practise open defecation (UNICEF/WHO, 2017). The impacts of this is direct and long-lasting. Diarrhoea alone is responsible for an estimated 21% of under-five mortality in the global south-2.5 million deaths per year and over 4% of the world's disease burden (J-PAL, 2012).