South Africa: Award-Winning Sanitation Team Keen to Link to Fellow African Researchers

University of KwaZulu Natal Pollution Research Group
Growth trials of plants fed with fertilizer from faecal sanitising machine.
12 July 2011
allAfrica.com
interview By Julie Frederikse

Durban — Chris Buckley, head of the Pollution Research Group at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in Durban, South Africa, spoke to Julie Frederikse about the upcoming sanitation conference in Rwanda.

How do you feel about your chance to attend this conference?

I'm looking forward to the opportunity to meet other researchers and officials responsible for the implementation of basic sanitation systems in different African countries. The opportunity to share experiences and to learn about different situations, opportunities and constraints will lead to the development of more robust and user-friendly systems.

Are there other efforts underway in other parts of Africa that may be similar to the kinds of work that you are involved with in South Africa? For example, have you heard about the U.S.-Ghanaian team which has been awarded funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to develop a bio-refinery using fecal sludge? The team is led by Professor Kartik Chandran of Earth and Environmental Engineering at Columbia Engineering and includes founder and director of Waste Enterprisers Ashley Murray and Moses Mensah, a chemical engineering professor at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology.

I know Ashley Murray, who is involved in this biodiesel and methane project. It is a multi-stage biological / physical chemical process which makes energy from faecal sludge. This process may or may not need external energy. It produces a usable energy source (methane) and biodiesel. This process may or may not need to be sited in a fixed location.

So how does this U.S.-Ghanaian project compare with the Faecal Sludge Sanitation Machine being developed by your university and the municipality of Durban?

The eThekwini Water and Sanitation pelletisation process is a direct physical process that pelletises, dries and pasteurises faecal sludge. This can be packaged and stored prior to transport to reuse in horticulture. It uses energy to produce this safe to handle product and can be moved to different locations.

The starting material for both processes is similar. The end products are different. The one makes different energy sources (methane and biodiesel); the other makes a fertiliser. The one being developed in Ghana recovers energy from faecal waste, while the one we are working on in Durban recovers nutrients from faecal waste.

There is another project in Ghana that aims to turn waste into fertilizer pellets for agriculture, led by Olufunke Cofie of the International Water Management Institute in Ghana. Do you know about this research?

I have met Funke Cofie and had read about the Ghana project, but your question has prompted me to contact Funke and to send him some pictures similar to the ones provided to AllAfrica.

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