To get started, you will get an overview of why sanitation is important for human health and environmental protection, especially in urban areas. Then, you will learn about what an Enabling Environment is and why it is important. Towards the end of the first week, you will get a taste of some state-of-the-art environmental sanitation planning approaches (Sanitation 21, CLUES, CLTS) that are currently being used in international development work.

After getting to know different sanitation planning frameworks in the first part of this week, you will learn about the key terminology and concepts used in the systems approach to environmental sanitation. We will also explore why systems thinking is crucial for urban environmental sanitation.

During week 3, you will dive more deeply into the technical aspects of different sanitation systems, from the simple single pit system to more complex centralised treatment systems. We introduce you to the main treatment processes in detail, highlighting advantages and disadvantages of each.

In this week, you will see much of the theory of the last weeks be put to the test. Here, we present you with case studies from Africa and Asia in which different sanitation solutions from neighbourhood to national scale are trialled or already fully established. Do you already feel familiar with all of them? Watch this week’s video collection to find out!