Social acceptability and household expectations of green sanitation systems

Large scale, centralised sanitation systems provide safe, reliable, affordable and dignified sanitation for those located within the waterborne sewerage network. However, publicly managed hydro-modernist sanitation systems are not available to all, with many households and communities across the world having access to basic off-grid, state provided sanitation services, such as pit latrines or Urine Diversion Dehydration Toilets, or having to provide their own solutions to sanitation waste. Urban green sanitation, which is non-sewered and off-grid, represents a new form of hydro-social and socio-technical relations. It aims to address sanitation backlogs and provide an alternative to centralised sanitation systems using ecological circularity. This paper categorises the social acceptability of urban green sanitation technologies in to four main dimensions: social concerns, environmental concerns, the right to sanitation and making a contribution to change. It draws on social assessments undertaken between 2016 and 2023, for the testing of sanitation technologies in Durban, South Africa, as part of the Engineering Field Testing Platform funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation’s Reinvent the Toilet Challenge, to reflect on the social dimensions of urban green sanitation. It argues that transdisciplinary research approaches and the co-production of knowledge are essential in understanding the social acceptability of green sanitation.