RE: The Latin American Report # 211
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As I have previously made my views known regarding prohibition that fuels the violence and corruption plaguing the Americas, I will not further remark here on that solution. The Sanima service for the ~100,000 people is ~$1M/mth (if I understand properly). This is very inexpensive for preventing potable water from being tainted with sewage, and could be a source of valuable fertilizer if properly composted after collection, which I assume is the reason it is collected in sawdust.
It is difficult to fund ~$12M/year for services to the poor, but the cost of pestilence untreated sewage extorts from the nation is almost certainly more, and the potential of sales of fertilizer (while almost certainly figured into the monthly fee already) may offset such expense if not already reckoned. While water based sewage systems have proved to massively improve the health of communities availed them for centuries, Sanima's service is well able to provide those same health benefits without tainting potable water supplies, which are increasingly expensive and in decreasing supply.
For many centuries landowners along busy routes competed to provide latrines that attracted travelers so they would be the beneficiaries of the deposits of valuable fertilizer, prior to the introduction of water sewerage systems. Such sewerage systems transformed valuable fertilizer into dangerous toxic waste, however, which turned out to be an economic drain and threat to the environment downstream. Composting is a far more economically viable technology IMHO, with comparable health benefits for communities that must provide sewer services, and potable water, to their populations.
Perhaps wealthy patrons needing fertilizer for their agricultural holdings might compete for the resource by providing safe and clean latrines for people were governments not in the way of people providing themselves solutions to their problems.
Thanks!
It appears that they are not taking advantage of this potential. In the source article is stated that Sanima moves 40 tons of waste weekly to a landfill. It would really be very positive if some of the alternatives you suggest could be achieved (as win-win solutions), despite they arise from the neglect and lack of protection to which the residents of Pamplona Alta are condemned. I even think of Cuba, where in the area where my mother-in-law lives there are still many people using latrines, while the country succumbs to the lack of fertilizers for agriculture. Here is a report on a project in the direction you suggested a few years ago, in Haiti.
The history and context you provided are not a mere add-on, but form an extraordinary content in itself. Thank you again for your always helpful feedback.
Sanima just dumping that waste at a landfill is a terrible practice, adding to the leachate burden landfills produce that can negatively impact the environment. A bit of open land where they could compost the fertilizer would likely reduce their costs operating the landfill, or paying to dump there, while producing a valuable product.
Sometimes I really don't understand how governments get their mandates. That in Peru seems to be completely divorced from economic reality.