1NEWLY DEVELOPED MEDIUM-TECH DECENTRALISED SANITATION CONCEPTS FOR CLOSING NUTRIENT AND WATER CYCLE

The term “Medium – Tech ” refers to a sanitation system which is still not a low-Tech, but also not a High-Tech. The development of alternatives sanitation concept is becoming more and more indispensable for both economic and ecological reasons, since the design of conventional sanitation concept was based on the wrong assumptions that resources are unlimited and the waste produced from the resources at household is only suitable for disposal in the environment where it could be assimilated by the nature. These assumptions fail to complete the resources loop. Therefore, we must take sever consequences e.g. pollution of aquatic environment, water scarcity, causing depletion of fossil resources, degradation of agricultural land, intensive energy use, high cost and spread of water-borne disease. Unfortunately, Agenda 21 failed to promote waste reuse and recycling methods related to sanitation, although water and fertile land are core subjects of survival of the future generation ( Otterpohl et al., 1999). Moreover, it gave no indication as to the level of technology that would be most appropriate to pursue in the developing countries ( Sanchez, 1993)