Thefirst international congress for the sanitation and nutrient transition ended on Sunday in Zurich, a few days before the tenth World Toilet Day next weekend (November 19th). Scientists and practitioners from seven European countries exchanged experiences and research results about alternatives to the current handling of human waste. Given the increasing drought in many regions, it is not sustainable for around a third of drinking water to be used to transport feces and urine to sewage treatment plants. In addition, human excrement contains large amounts of nitrogen and phosphorus - substances that are used as fertilizer in agriculture.

The almost 100 congress participants presented a variety of projects. The Swiss national water and wastewater institute in Zurich EAWAG has been researching urine separation for almost three decades, which could reduce the size of sewage treatment plants by two thirds. In the new Paris district of Saint-Vincent-de Paul, 600 apartments are now being equipped with appropriate pipes. The collected urine will be used as fertilizer in public green spaces, reported Louise Raguet from the Ecole Nationale des Ponts et Chausées. In Eberswalde, Germany, a company processes human feces from dry toilets into hygienic compost. The harvest results are currently being scientifically examined.
However, the current legal situation has so far hindered the scaling of such approaches in many cases.

The motto of the European meeting was “Connect the Networks”. The national associations from Germany/Austria ( Network for Sustainable Sanitation Systems - NetSan e.V. ), France ( Réseaud'Assainissement Ecologique - RAE ) and Switzerland ( VaLoo - Circular Sanitation Network Switzerland ) agreed to workclosely together.

During the congress me and Arne also presented SuSanA and the idea of regional chapters.
The aim is to open up the congress to a broader group of European actors in order to develop joint actions to exchange and develop knowledge and to do effective Advocacy work at an European level.