Welcome to the first week of our online course entitled Planning and Design of Sanitation Systems and Technologies. My name is Christoph Lüthi from Eawag. In the next five weeks, we will be exploring some of the issues and challenges in urban sanitation. What makes urban sanitation so different and more complex than rural contexts? Let's take a look at our learning goals. Firstly, we'd like you to get familiar with urban sanitation assessment and planning tools. Secondly, different options of sanitation systems and technologies. And lastly, understand which systems and technologies are most appropriate to different contexts. We'll be looking at different systems and technologies, the institutions and stakeholders that need to be involved, and we'll be presenting best practice from around the world featuring innovative and robust solutions to inclusive urban sanitation. And finally, we're also going to be taking a closer look at different planning and assessment frameworks, and the design of different sanitation systems. <i>What makes urban sanitation so different and more complex than rural contexts? <i>Firstly, the different urban contexts or domains that need to be considered: <i>from the modern inner-city planned areas, <i>to the dense and unplanned informal settlements or slums <i>found in most cities of Africa, Asia, and Latin America. <i>And finally, the fast-growing city periphery, <i>also called</i> the peri-urban interface. <i>These different contexts and urban realities <i>call for specific solutions <i>when seeking appropriate and sustainable urban sanitation services. <i>Let's take a look at a typical low-income area in an African city. <i>Some of the challenges found in these neighborhoods <i>include unsanitary environments, <i>lack of space for sanitation facilities, like the pit latrine shown here, <i>and informal, unhygienic toilet emptying or open defecation, as shown here. <i>So what can be done about this situation? <i>In this course, we will focus on a key concept of urban sanitation, the sanitation value chain. <i>We will highlight the different components and functional groups, <i>as in the example shown here. <i>First, the user interface, or pour-flush toilet shown here in red, <i>the safe storage of the human waste, <i>followed by the mechanical emptying of the sludge <i>by the exhauster trucks in yellow. <i>The safely-collected fecal sludge <i>is then brought to a treatment site in green, <i>in this case, a sludge-drying bed, <i>and finally, the safe reuse in urban agriculture, shown in blue. <i>The value chain allows for a realistic assessment <i>of a range of sanitation options and solutions, <i>and its technical and managerial implications. <i>Our five-week course <i>will be examining the issues around the planning, design, <i>and implementation of inclusive, city-wide sanitation systems <i>and technologies. <i>The sanitation value chain will be our guiding concept. <i>Let's take a closer look at the syllabus. <i>In week one, we're going to give you an overview of city sanitation, <i>planning and programming, the political economy, <i>and provide you with some assessment frameworks <i>on how to better understand the urban sanitation framework. <i>In week two, we're going to introduce you to different sanitation products, <i>and the five functional groups starting off with user interface, <i>the collection and transport. <i>And in week three, the sanitation systems and technologies, <i>especially for treatment, and use or disposal. <i>In week four, we're going to look at different case studies <i>that feature best practice from Africa, Asia, and Latin America. <i>And finally, in week five, we're going to be taking a look <i>at urban sanitation planning and assessment tools <i>featuring some of the state-of-the-art tools <i>of the World Bank and WHO. <i>And finally, the final exam, <i>where you will be able to evaluate what you have learned <i>in the past five weeks. <i>Here we list some of the recommended references <i>that you may want to download from our course site. <i>These documents were produced by the institutions involved <i>in putting together this course: <i>Eawag, the International Water Association, <i>the World Bank, and the World Health Organization. On behalf of my team and fellow lecturers, I'm looking forward to working with you and hearing your contributions on the Coursera Forum. Let's start the course now, with the first input by Jonathan Parkinson, on Sanitation Planning. Enjoy.
