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Multilateral development banks (MDBs) play a pivotal role in financing water and sanitation infrastructure projects and thus have a major impact on the development of basic services. Although information about the MDBs' investments is publicly available, it is dispersed and not easily comparable. A comprehensive compilation of MDBs' water and sanitation investments has long been lacking. To address this gap, we assess water and sanitation financing by the three MDBs most relevant to Africa and Asia between 1960 and 2020: the World Bank, the African Development Bank, and the Asian Development Bank. We compile a new dataset by drawing on 3,639 water and sanitation projects and assess territorial trends, technology choices, distribution of financial burdens, and reforms to institutional arrangements. We find that MDBs' investments align with changing patterns of urbanization and increasingly finance sanitation infrastructures including non-sewered technologies. However, our results also suggest that institutional reforms have addressed utility efficiency through investment in equipment and skills rather than through increased commercialization and private sector participation. The leverage effect of MDB investment on private financing is negligible, whereas co-financing from local governments dominates.

Citywide inclusive sanitation (CWIS) is becoming the dominant paradigm for achieving safe sanitation for all by 2030. Its technical benefits have been explored, but the bargaining over financial and organizational changes CWIS entails have not yet been adequately addressed. Our case study explains the stalled rollout of CWIS in Dhaka, Bangladesh. We analyse policy pathways over the past 30 years through a combined territorial political economy and power perspective to understand their effects on equality. We highlight how donors link the introduction of CWIS to the organization of sanitation through a market; how the utility uses CWIS as an opportunity to avoid costly responsibilities in non-sewered sanitation; and how service co-production through community-based solutions is neglected. CWIS has successfully overcome the dogmatic technological focus in the sanitation system, but for citywide sanitation to be scaled inclusively, the dogmatic focus in the organization and financing of the sanitation sector must also be overcome.

In recent years, shared facilities have contributed substantially to increased access to sanitation in urban areas. While shared sanitation is often the only viable option in densely-populated, low-income urban areas, it is currently considered a “limited" solution by the international community. In this paper, we analyze the conditions under which shared sanitation could be considered of adequate quality and propose a set of indicators associated with sanitation quality to be included in national household surveys. We conducted a survey with 3600 households and 2026 observational spot-checks of shared and individual household toilets in Kisumu (Kenya), Kumasi (Ghana), and Dhaka (Bangladesh). We develop a composite sanitation quality outcome measure based on observational data. Using regression analysis, we identify self-reported indicators that correlate with the spot-checked composite measure and are, therefore, robust with regard to reporting bias. Results show that (pour-) flush toilets are a highly informative indicator for sanitation quality compared to other toilet technologies. In contrast to previous arguments and depending on the context, sharing a toilet has a comparatively lower correlation with sanitation quality. Toilets still show good quality if shared among only 2–3 households. Toilet location and lighting, as well as the presence of a lockable door, are equally strong indicators for sanitation quality and could serve as alternative indicators. The findings suggest that the sanitation service levels defined by the WHO and UNICEF might be reconsidered to better capture the quality of sanitation facilities in low-income urban settlements., Social Indicators Research, 162 (2), ISSN:0303-8300, ISSN:1573-0921

The water, sanitation, and solid waste sectors are closely related and have many interactions between their respective service chains in low- and middle-income countries. Currently, these interactions mostly lead to cross-contamination, and opportunities for co-benefits are seldom realized. This review presents the key advancements within each of these three development sectors in the past two decades. We identify numerous similarities such as decentralization, resource recovery, community involved planning, and digitalization. Despite the potential for synergies and the opportunities to maximize positive interactions, there have been few attempts to break the existing sectoral silos in order to integrate these three service chains. We argue that, with the right enabling environment, an integrated approachto holistically planning and implementing water supply, sanitation, and solid waste management can create positive interactions resulting in co-benefits among complementary development goals.

The water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) sector is facing a shortfall of several million appropriately skilled professionals. Massive open online courses (MOOCs) can play a crucial role in addressing this. This paper presents the case study of the MOOC series “Sanitation, Water and Solid Waste for Development”, which has reached over 120,000 learners within six years. It has attracted mainly well-educated, employed learners, under 34 years old, from Asia, Latin America and Africa. Underrepresentation of female learners remains a challenge. While MOOCs have proven excellent for delivering WASH education at scale, some alternative formats (e.g. blended learning, small private online courses) allow more collaborative, interactive learning environments. Three practical examples from Nigeria, Indonesia and Mozambique indicate the potential for synergies among MOOCs and further learning formats. With the global shift towards digital learning due to the COVID-19 pandemic, MOOCs have gained further traction.

Shared sanitation facilities (SSFs) have contributed considerably to sanitation access in many low-income settlements. While many SSFs are of unacceptable quality, others have been found to be a hygienically safe and a socially and economically viable sanitation option. Within its framework, the WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme (JMP), evaluating progress on the Sustainable Development Goals, considers shared sanitation as 'limited sanitation'. Overall, there is uncertainty about the criteria to distinguish between unacceptable and acceptable quality of SSF. In our study, we used a user-centred qualitative approach in low-income urban settlements in Kumasi (Ghana), Kisumu (Kenya) and Dhaka (Bangladesh) and conducted 17 focus group discussions to evaluate how SSF users define the quality of an SSF and which aspects they consider as essential priorities for good-quality SSF. In descending order, the user priorities identified are: immediate water access, cleanliness, gender-separated toilets, flush toilets, lighting for use at night, lockable/functional doors, tiling, handwashing stations and privacy. This list can serve as input to the sanitation guidelines, local building codes and the establishment of minimum national sanitation standards. SSFs that meet these minimal criteria can then be promoted as an incremental step when individual household facilities are not feasible., Journal of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene for Development, 10 (4), ISSN:2043-9083

Gene drive organisms (GDOs) have been suggested as approaches to combat some of the most pressing environmental and public health issues. No such organisms have so far been released into the environment, but it remains unclear whether the relevant regulatory provisions will be fit for purpose to cover their potential environmental, human and animal health risks if environmental releases of GDOs are envisaged. We evaluate the novel features of GDOs and outline the resulting challenges for the environmental risk assessment. These are related to the definition of the receiving environment, the use of the comparative approach, the definition of potential harm, the stepwise testing approach, the assessment of long-term and large-scale risks at population and ecosystem level and the post-release monitoring of adverse effects. Fundamental adaptations as well as the development of adequate risk assessment methodologies are needed in order to enable an operational risk assessment for globally spreading GDOs before these organisms are released into environments in the EU.

Recent developments in high- and middle-income countries have exhibited a shift from conventional urban water systems to alternative solutions that are more diverse in source separation, decentralization, and modularization. These solutions include nongrid, small-grid, and hybrid systems to address such pressing global challenges as climate change, eutrophication, and rapid urbanization. They close loops, recover valuable resources, and adapt quickly to changing boundary conditions such as population size. Moving to such alternative solutions requires both technical and social innovations to coevolve over time into integrated socio-technical urban water systems. Current implementations of alternative systems in high- and middle-income countries are promising, but they also underline the need for research questions to be addressed from technical, social, and transformative perspectives. Future research should pursue a transdisciplinary research approach to generating evidence through socio-technical "lighthouse" projects that apply alternative urban water systems at scale. Such research should leverage experiences from these projects in diverse socio-economic contexts, identify their potentials and limitations from an integrated perspective, and share their successes and failures across the urban water sector.

The current initiative of the European Commission (EC) concerning plants produced using certain new genomic techniques, in particular, targeted mutagenesis and cisgenesis, underlines that a high level of protection for human and animal health and the environment needs to be maintained when using such applications. The current EU biosafety regulation framework ensures a high level of protection with a mandatory environmental risk assessment (ERA) of genetically modified (GM) products prior to the authorization of individual GMOs for environmental release or marketing. However, the guidance available from the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) for conducting such an ERA is not specific enough regarding the techniques under discussion and needs to be further developed to support the policy goals towards ERA, i.e., a case-by-case assessment approach proportionate to the respective risks, currently put forward by the EC. This review identifies important elements for the case-by-case approach for the ERA that need to be taken into account in the framework for a risk-oriented regulatory approach. We also discuss that the comparison of genome-edited plants with plants developed using conventional breeding methods should be conducted at the level of a scientific case-by-case assessment of individual applications rather than at a general, technology-based level. Our considerations aim to support the development of further specific guidance for the ERA of genome-edited plants.

The QUISS project identifies the key criteria of ‘acceptable quality’ shared toilets in low-income urban contexts and provides recommendations for strengthening the acceptability, functionality and sustainability of shared sanitation facilities.

A majority of the world's population use onsite sanitation systems, which store or treat excreta close to where it is generated. Sludge from these systems needs to be managed through a series of stages, known as the sanitation value chain. There is a huge diversity of service providers, not only within each part of the chain, but also along the chain bridging the different components. These service providers are linked not only by the flow of materials, but also by the transfer of money. Therefore for this system to be considered financially sustainable all services from the toilet to reuse or disposal need to be considered. A tool has been developed (eSOSView™) to simulate, evaluate, and optimise the financial flows along and within the sanitation value chain. In this paper eSOSView™ was tested, validated (using existing data), and piloted (including data collection). This paper demonstrates how eSOSView ™ can be used to evaluate different financial flow models, to assess financial sustainability in different parts of the sanitation value chain and optimise the financial sustainability along the sanitation value chain.

BACKGROUND Legumes have been genetically engineered to express α-amylase inhibitor 1 (αAI-1) from common bean in their seeds. Whereas the genetically modified (GM) seeds are immune to multiple bruchid pest species, the cosmopolitan bruchid Acanthoscelides obtectus is tolerant to αAI-1 and their larvae develop normally inside the seeds. Hymenopteran bruchid parasitoids, the most important natural enemies of bruchids, might thus be exposed to αAI-1 when attacking A. obtectus larvae developing inside GM seeds. Exposure might reduce parasitoid fitness, resulting in a decline in the natural control of A. obtectus, and thus promote the spread of this pest. We investigated the impact of the presence of αAI-1 in legume seeds on parasitoid fitness in tritrophic experiments with αAI-1 GM or non-GM chickpea seeds, A. obtectus, and three parasitoid species. Additionally, we investigated the exposure of parasitoids to αAI-1 using a fourth, highly sensitive parasitoid species. RESULTS Parasitoid fitness was not affected when A. obtectus was used in GM chickpea seeds as hosts, and this lack of effects was probably attributable to the fact that exposure of the parasitoids to αAI-1 was negligible. CONCLUSION We conclude that the release of GM chickpeas containing αAI-1 should not harm this important group of non-target insects. © 2018 Society of Chemical Industry.

Small scale wastewater treatment systems are a cost-effective and pragmatic alternative to large centralised systems in many contexts. However, despite the huge potential, very few low- and middle-income countries managed to scale-up such systems. This paper explores the barriers in the case of Egypt and provides recommendations to utilities and governments on how to create an enabling environment to do so. The main barriers are institutional. Utilities need to put into place drivers of change: think at scale, reach economies of scale both in terms of management and implementation, adapt the effluent standards and engage the private sector and civil society.

NoMix toilets separate urine and feces at the source and are a promising resource recovery technology. However, design issues hamper the transformation from unattractive to aspirational products. Little effort has been done to design toilets that account for physiological differences, leading to adverse effects on user-friendliness and urine separation efficiency. We used infrared recordings to assess gender-specific urination practices. Based on field data, we developed the Urinator, a simple device that allows simulating male and female urine streams. This supports engineers in developing more user- and gender-friendly and reuse-oriented sanitation technologies.

The need for taking a comprehensive perspective when selecting sanitation technologies in developing contexts has been increasingly discussed. Process guides, which are planning documents describing steps decision-makers need to take, represent one possible contribution to attain comprehensive decisions. An interview study with sanitation experts was carried out to understand the importance and real use of such planning documents for the selection of urban sanitation technologies in developing countries, as well as to understand the relevance and actual consideration of decision elements and to identify recommendations for taking them into account. Although process guides appear to be helpful to guide planning processes, their use does not seem to be common practice. It is actually doubtful that the sector is currently able to make better use of those documents in the form that they exist today. Furthermore, the importance of a comprehensive approach is generally recognised, but relevant decision elements were said to be often neglected. Finally, results from the interview analysis also emphasised the need for a conducive policy environment, namely by developing appropriate institutional and legal frameworks, and by incentivising planners and decision-makers to further adapt to comprehensive decision-making practices that effectively improve the sanitation situation in developing countries.

An intensely debated question is whether or how a mandatory environmental risk assessment (ERA) should be conducted for plants obtained through novel genomic techniques, including genome editing (GE). Some countries have already exempted certain types of GE applications from their regulations addressing genetically modified organisms (GMOs). In the European Union, the European Court of Justice confirmed in 2018 that plants developed by novel genomic techniques for directed mutagenesis are regulated as GMOs. Thus, they have to undergo an ERA prior to deliberate release or being placed on the market. Recently, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) published two opinions on the relevance of the current EU ERA framework for GM plants obtained through novel genomic techniques (NGTs). Regarding GE plants, the opinions confirmed that the existing ERA framework is suitable in general and that the current ERA requirements need to be applied in a case specific manner. Since EFSA did not provide further guidance, this review addresses a couple of issues relevant for the case-specific assessment of GE plants. We discuss the suitability of general denominators of risk/safety and address characteristics of GE plants which require particular assessment approaches. We suggest integrating the following two sets of considerations into the ERA: considerations related to the traits developed by GE and considerations addressing the assessment of method-related unintended effects, e.g., due to off-target modifications. In conclusion, we recommend that further specific guidance for the ERA and monitoring should be developed to facilitate a focused assessment approach for GE plants.

Planning for urban sanitation in developing contexts is one of the major development challenges of this century. Particularly, the relevance of a broad perspective in sanitation decision-making processes has been increasingly discussed. One possible contribution to achieve comprehensive decisions is through the use of planning guidelines, also called process guides. The present work first identified categories of relevant decision elements, namely: (a) the multi-sectoral approach, (b) the multiplicity of sustainable dimensions, (c) the system analysis perspective and (d) the co-existence of planning scales. Then, for each category, a comparative analysis of urban sanitation process guides was conducted with a focus on technology decision-making. It was found that the importance of considering those categories is increasingly reflected in process guides, although not always in a detailed supportive way. Recommendations are provided to increase the added value of process guides regarding technology selection, as well as, to better integrate them into urban planning.

The improvement of sanitation conditions in slums(1)is difficult in part because of economic and institutional environments that often prevent private or public investment in infrastructure. This analysis of sanitation conditions in informal settlements in Nairobi and Kampala compares user practices. It also identifies the main actors involved in the provision of overlapping sanitation systems, involving a multitude of small-scale providers, along with the challenges these present. The paper goes on to describe a new market-based approach in Nairobi, developed by a social enterprise, Sanergy, which is responsible for the construction of facilities and the collection and treatment of wastes. The system improves user satisfaction, community wellbeing and environmental quality, pointing to a clear opportunity for such market-based interventions where a customer base already pays for sub-standard services. There remain challenges, however, around the ability to scale up and finance these providers, especially in complex operating environments that increase transactional costs for companies.

This paper provides a comparative assessment of community-scale decentralized wastewater treatment systems (DEWATS) in Nepal, based on three communities in urban and peri-urban locations. The analysis provides lessons for sustainable and future replications of this approach, highlighting the benefits, drivers for long-term operation and maintenance, and barriers associated with up-scaling. Nepal is experiencing the fastest rate of urbanization in the South Asian region, while sanitation and wastewater management are emerging as some of the biggest challenges in urban areas. Over 43 per cent of the population still lacks access to a toilet, and virtually all wastewater and septage is discharged into water bodies without treatment. These mounting problems of urban sanitation demand urgent and appropriate solutions. The inherent simplicity of DEWATS provides an effective, affordable, and low-maintenance option for treating wastewater. This is particularly the case for low-income communities.

Legumes have been genetically engineered to express α-amylase inhibitor 1 (αAI-1) from common bean in their seeds. Whereas the genetically modified (GM) seeds are immune to multiple bruchid pest species, the cosmopolitan bruchid Acanthoscelides obtectus is tolerant to αAI-1 and their larvae develop normally inside the seeds. Hymenopteran bruchid parasitoids, the most important natural enemies of bruchids, might thus be exposed to αAI-1 when attacking A. obtectus larvae developing inside GM seeds. Exposure might reduce parasitoid fitness, resulting in a decline in the natural control of A. obtectus, and thus promote the spread of this pest. We investigated the impact of the presence of αAI-1 in legume seeds on parasitoid fitness in tritrophic experiments with αAI-1 GM or non-GM chickpea seeds, A. obtectus, and three parasitoid species. Additionally, we investigated the exposure of parasitoids to αAI-1 using a fourth, highly sensitive parasitoid species.Parasitoid fitness was not affected when A. obtectus was used in GM chickpea seeds as hosts, and this lack of effects was probably attributable to the fact that exposure of the parasitoids to αAI-1 was negligible.We conclude that the release of GM chickpeas containing αAI-1 should not harm this important group of non-target insects. © 2018 Society of Chemical Industry.

Health care facilities in low- and middle-income countries are high-risk settings, and face special challenges to achieving sustainable water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) services. Our applied interdisciplinary research conducted in India and Uganda analyzed six dimensions of WASH services in selected health care facilities, including menstrual hygiene management. To be effective, WASH monitoring strategies in health care facilities must include gender sensitive measures. We present a novel strategy, showing that applied gender sensitive multitool assessments are highly productive in assessments of WASH services and facilities from user and provider perspectives. We discuss its potential for applications at scale and as an area of future research.

The sanitation concept ‘Blue Diversion’ ([www.bluediversiontoilet.com][1]) was developed as a possible answer to the sanitation crisis in urban slums. It is based on two main elements: (1) diversion of urine, feces, and water at the source as the basis for efficient resource recovery, and (2) linking different scales (family toilets and semi-centralized resource recovery). Our objective was to develop an attractive ‘grid-free’ (i.e. functioning without piped water, sewer, and electrical grid) dry urine-diverting toilet, which provides water (through recycling on-site) for flushing, personal hygiene (anal cleansing and menstrual hygiene), and hand washing. This service, including the entire sanitation value chain, should eventually be made available as a profitable business with total user fees of 5 ¢/p/d. The results presented in this paper are (1) a toilet design model, (2) the development of a new type of membrane bioreactor for treating flush and wash water, (3) main results of a geographic information system-based stochastic service model to link the family-scale toilet to a community-scale Resource Recovery Plant, and (4) a business model that yields maximum profit for the local community. We conclude that the approach is feasible, but challenging from a technical as well as an organizational point of view. [1]: http://www.bluediversiontoilet.com

Poor waste management is a key driver of ill-health in urban settlements of developing countries. The current study aimed at assessing environmental and human health risks related to urban waste management in Yamoussoukro, the political capital of Côte d’Ivoire. We undertook trans-disciplinary research within an Ecohealth approach, comprised of a participatory workshop with stakeholders and mapping of exposure patterns. A total of 492 randomly selected households participated in a cross-sectional survey. Waste deposit sites were characterised and 108 wastewater samples were subjected to laboratory examinations. The physico-chemical parameters of the surface water (temperature, pH, conductivity, potential oxidise reduction, BOD5, COD, dissolved oxygen, nitrates, ammonia and total Kendal nitrogen) did not comply with World Health Organization standards of surface water quality. Questionnaire results showed that malaria was the most commonly reported disease. Diarrhoea and malaria were associated with poor sanitation. Households having dry latrines had a higher risk of diarrhoea (odds ratio (OR) = 1.8, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.2–2.7) compared to latrines with septic tanks and also a higher risk for malaria (OR = 1.9, 95% (CI) 1.1–3.3). Our research showed that combining health and environmental assessments enables a deeper understanding of environmental threats and disease burdens linked to poor waste management. Further study should investigate the sanitation strategy aspects that could reduce the environmental and health risks in the study area.

This paper discusses the notions of ‘improved’ and ‘unimproved’ sanitation in the context of developing countries in urbanizing Africa and considers the role that shared facilities can play in this equation. It analyses current definitions and classifications used by the United Nations Joint Monitoring Programme (JMP) to monitor access to shared sanitation and summarizes the recent discourse on JMP's limitations. Empirical evidence from two case studies in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) - Kampala, Uganda and Ashaiman, Ghana - is presented, showing the widespread use and limitations of the shared toilet facilities in these two cities. The empirical evidence shows that quite different types of shared sanitation facilities emerge in different cities, each influenced by the urbanization patterns, local politics and sociocultural considerations. Improving the quality of shared facilities involves the consideration of the applicability of the different types of facilities within the category ‘shared sanitation’, toge...

Access to improved sanitation is a key preventive measure against sanitary-related gastro-enteric diseases such as diarrhoea. We assessed the access to sanitation facilities and users' satisfaction in 50 randomly selected slums of Kampala through a cross-sectional survey conducted in 2010. A total of 1500 household respondents were interviewed. Sixty-eight per cent of the respondents used shared toilets, 20% private, 11% public toilets and less than 1% reported using flying toilets or practising open defecation. More than half of the respondents (51.7%) were not satisfied with their sanitation facilities. Determinants for satisfaction with the facilities used included the nature and type of toilet facilities used, their cleanliness, and the number of families sharing them. The study findings showed that slum dwellers had high access to sanitation facilities. However, most of them were shared and majority of the respondents were not satisfied with their facilities, primarily due to cleanliness and over demand.

Access to safe drinking water and improved sanitation is a key public health measure to prevent outbreak of diseases such as diarrhoea. We conducted a cross-sectional survey in 50 randomly selected slums of Kampala to assess the sources of water and sanitation facilities used in urban informal settlements. A total of 1,500 household respondents were interviewed. More than half (63.6%) of the respondents were using piped water for their domestic needs. The majority of the respondents (68.3%) had shared sanitation facilities and only 20% of the respondents had private ones. The factors influencing access to sanitation facilities included; household ownership, number of families sharing a toilet stand, cost of the sanitation facilities, stability of the income of household members and cleanliness of the facilities used. This paper thus provides knowledge insights on which more sustainable options for water and sanitation technologies in urban poor settlements can be based.

Dry grain legume seeds possessing αAI-1, an α-amylase inhibitor from common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris), under the control of a cotyledon-specific promoter have been shown to be highly resistant to several important bruchid pest species. One transgenic chickpea and four cowpea lines expressing αAI-1, their respective controls, as well as nine conventional chickpea cultivars were assessed for their resistance to the bruchids Acanthoscelides obtectus (Say), Callosobruchus chinensis L. and Callosobruchus maculatus F. All transgenic lines were highly resistant to both Callosobruchus species. A. obtectus, known to be tolerant to αAI-1, was able to develop in all transgenic lines. While the cotyledons of all non-transgenic cultivars were highly susceptible to all bruchids, C. chinensis and C. maculatus larvae suffered from significantly increased mortality rates inside transgenic seeds. The main factor responsible for the partial resistance in the non-transgenic cultivars was deduced to reside in the seed coat. The αAI-1 present in seeds of transgenic chickpea and cowpea lines significantly increases their resistance to two important bruchid pest species (C. chinensis and C. maculatus) essentially to immunity. To control αAI-1 tolerant bruchid species such as A. obtectus and to avoid the development of resistance to αAI-1, varieties carrying this transgene should be protected with additional control measures.

This paper aims to contribute to the growing body of literature on evaluation of community participation in the water and sanitation sector. The first part discusses the conceptual underpinnings of participatory approaches. The paper then analyses stakeholder perceptions about the Household-centred Environmental Sanitation (HCES) approach, a participatory planning approach recently validated in two countries: Lao People's Democratic Republic (PDR) and Nepal. Post intervention surveys were conducted with experts and key informants in both countries to assess satisfaction regarding degree of participation, effectiveness of planning outcomes and process efficiency of the participatory planning process. It specifically looks at the variability in people's perceptions about the costs and benefits of community participation. Empirical findings show that experts and participants show high satisfaction rates regarding involvement in decision making. The earlier and stronger residents were involved in the process, the higher the satisfaction rate. In a second part, the main findings of expert interviews are contrasted with the perceptions of the community at large which participated in the participatory planning process. A better understanding of community participation in urban settings is needed regarding skills, motivation, time, and defining the right levels of participation.

The multicomponent venom of the spider Cupiennius salei was separated by three different chromatographic strategies to facilitate subsequent analysis of peptidic venom components by tandem mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF-MS and ESI-MS), Edman degradation and amino acid analysis: (a) desalting of the crude venom by RP-HPLC only, (b) chromatographic separation of the crude venom into 42 fractions by RP-HPLC, and (c) multidimensional purification of the crude venom by size exclusion and cation exchange chromatography and RP-HPLC. A total of 286 components were identified in the venom of C. salei by mass spectrometry and the sequence of 49 new peptides was determined de novo by Edman degradation and tandem mass spectrometry; 30 were C-terminally amidated. The novel peptides were assigned to two main groups: (a) short cationic peptides and (b) Cys-containing peptides with the inhibitor cystine knot motif. Bioinformatics revealed a limited number of substantial similarities, namely with the peptides CpTx1 from the spider Cheiracantium punctorium and U3-ctenitoxin-Asp1a from the South American fishing spider (Ancylometes sp.) and with sequences from a Lycosa singoriensis venom gland transcriptome analysis. The results clearly indicate that the quality of the data is strongly dependent on the chosen separation strategy. The combination of orthogonal analytical methods efficiently excludes alkali ion and matrix adducts, provides indispensable information for an unambiguous identification of isomasses, and results in the most comprehensive repertoire of peptides identified in the venom of C. salei so far.

The Household-Centered Environmental Sanitation (HCES) planning approach was tested for the first time in Nepal in a peri-urban setting during 2009/2011, in order to validate the novel planning approach, identify challenges and improve the process. The participatory multi-stakeholder process involved household mapping and surveys, user needs identification and prioritization and a stakeholder assessment. Following an expert's assessment of potential sanitation options, community sensitization campaigns through exposure visits, a sanitation bazaar and focused community interactions were conducted. Among the three sanitation alternatives, users showed strong preference to set up a simplified sewerage system with a decentralized wastewater treatment. The paper critically discusses the key challenges faced when developing environmental sanitation plans. Setting the right balance between empowering people to take informed decisions and keeping the participation process intact until the final stage was a major challenge. Although participatory planning is time consuming, it is worth investing as it builds local ownership and assists in informed decision-making processes for selecting affordable sanitation options that best meet user's needs.

Climate change, diminishing natural resources and rural-urban demographic trends will have profound impacts on future urban infrastructure delivery in both developed and developing countries. These challenges will however, leverage new opportunities for circular urban economies in which productive sanitation will play an important role in both the North and South. In the developed world, the challenge is to initiate a transition from disposal oriented, water-based infrastructure regimes towards more sustainable, re-use oriented, and productive sanitation. Decentralized approaches to “productive sanitation“ (including the production of biogas, fertilizer or water for irrigation) with a source-separation focus (segregation of flow streams with different properties) will allow for considerable cost and resource savings and enable life-cycle economies. In the developing world, the sanitation challenge is about leapfrogging over-engineered sanitation services and technologies, especially for urban areas which are currently without sanitation services, to overcome the huge service backlog. This paper gives an initial overview of the current state of urban sanitation with a North- South perspective, followed by a discussion of the new role of sustainable sanitation systems for cities of the future. Planning innovations for urban sanitation, initial lessons learned and current challenges faced are addressed. Context specific challenges and opportunities are illustrated in a variety of urban settings, from non-tenured, low-income settlements to middle- and high-income inner-city areas.

Urban sanitation presents one of the most significant service delivery challenges related to poverty alleviation and sustainable development in the developing world. The past decade has witnessed innovations in service delivery approaches for un-served rural and urban settlements with a clear policy shift to community-based approaches which attempt to overcome the supply-led, over-engineered sanitation solutions of the past decades. This paper presents two examples of new developments: the urban-focused Household-centred Environmental Sanitation (HCES) and the rural-focused Community-led Total Sanitation (CLTS) approaches. The internationally renowned CLTS approach has achieved considerable success since its introduction, by harnessing community and small private sector capacity to solve sanitation problems locally. Experience with validation of the HCES approach in a variety of urban sites in Africa, Asia and Latin America is presented in the second part of the paper- highlighting some of the lessons learned. The paper closes by arguing that a combination of HCES and CLTS, two field-tested methodologies, has the potential to improve the sustainability of sanitation service interventions.

Too often, standardized groupings of sanitation and treatment technologies are imposed in situations where they may not be appropriate. The Household-Centred Environmental Sanitation (HCES) approach instead emphasizes that the needs and means of households should be put first, and a collaborative process involving all stakeholders should steer the planning process.

The multicomponent venom of the spider Cupiennius salei was separated by three different chromatographic strategies to facilitate subsequent analysis of peptidic venom components by tandem mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF-MS and ESI-MS), Edman degradation and amino acid analysis: (a) desalting of the crude venom by RP-HPLC only, (b) chromatographic separation of the crude venom into 42 fractions by RP-HPLC, and (c) multidimensional purification of the crude venom by size exclusion and cation exchange chromatography and RP-HPLC. A total of 286 components were identified in the venom of C. salei by mass spectrometry and the sequence of 49 new peptides was determined de novo by Edman degradation and tandem mass spectrometry; 30 were C-terminally amidated. The novel peptides were assigned to two main groups: (a) short cationic peptides and (b) Cys-containing peptides with the inhibitor cystine knot motif. Bioinformatics revealed a limited number of substantial similarities, namely with the peptides CpTx1 from the spider Cheiracantium punctorium and U3-ctenitoxin-Asp1a from the South American fishing spider (Ancylometes sp.) and with sequences from a Lycosa singoriensis venom gland transcriptome analysis. The results clearly indicate that the quality of the data is strongly dependent on the chosen separation strategy. The combination of orthogonal analytical methods efficiently excludes alkali ion and matrix adducts, provides indispensable information for an unambiguous identification of isomasses, and results in the most comprehensive repertoire of peptides identified in the venom of C. salei so far.

Reaching the Millennium Development Goals for Sanitation is a challenge. To address this challenge, numerous technological innovations have been developed. But with so many innovations and a wide range of existing technologies appropriate in different settings, difficulties with communication and knowledge dissemination hinder informed decision-making and the integration of all sanitation elements. This chapter describes a novel method for organizing and defining sanitation systems to facilitate informed decision-making and an integrated approach. Technologies are categorized based on their ‘Product-Process’ specificity and then linked into logical systems using a ‘Flowstream’ concept. Technologies are grouped and used to construct seven logical systems. Additionally, according to the flowstream, suitable technologies are grouped and given a score for each of the criteria. The advantages and shortcomings of the flowstream approach to sanitation system planning and the differences between ‘system’ and ‘technology’ are discussed and a set of terms and concepts that can be used to standardize the way in which sanitation is thought of and communicated about is proposed.

Genetically modified (GM) cowpea seeds expressing αAI-1, an α-amylase inhibitor from the common bean, have been shown to be immune against several bruchid species. Effective control of such pests by growing GM cowpea could promote the spread of bruchid species that are αAI-1 tolerant. Consequently, the sustainability of bruchid pest control could be increased by combining GM seeds and hymenopteran parasitoids. However, there are concerns that αAI-1 could interfere with the biological control provided by parasitoids. Here, we assessed the impact of GM cowpea seeds expressing αAI-1 on the αAI-1-tolerant bruchid Zabrotes subfasciatus and its parasitoid Dinarmus basalis. αAI-1 in cowpea seeds did not increase resistance to Z. subfasciatus or affect the mortality rate of Z. subfasciatus larvae. Parasitism of Z. subfasciatus by D. basalis and fitness of D. basalis offspring were not affected by the presence of αAI-1. Thus, αAI-1-expressing cowpeas and parasitoids should be compatible for the control of bruchid pests.