Affordable wastewater treatment technology to treat 100% liquid waste (faecal sludge) for a value of less than €45 per capita and less than €10 per capita/year supply cost

Even in Europe water utility infrastructure management and development are facing profound financing gaps. The reconstruction of the ageing water infrastructure is underfinanced and underperforming. Capital costs are not or are just partly included in tariffs, nor covered by public spending. The yearly reconstruction rate of the existing infrastructure is less than 1%-0,1%, which is presuming an unrealistic life expectancy of up to over 1.000 years. The non-refundable grant-based EU public funding for the “new accession countries” requires only the inclusion of the depreciation of the assets, (which equates to a bank finance with 50 years payback period and interest-free loan of 2% of the invested capital/year), but even this is not provided due to affordability limitations. There is a financing gap in the investment of water-related sectors. Mobilization of private investment is expected to complement public funding in this area. This requires sustainable and profitable water-related investments. If the EU WFD model for water, sewerage and wastewater treatment and sanitation infrastructure is expected to have in developing countries, the cost of this (20+ thousand Billion USD) is non-financeable and non-affordable at all. Not to mention the time factor, an EU WFD model-related project can take several years to complete, but the challenges are urgent. To accelerate SDG implementation in the field of wastewater treatment and to avoid environmental and health problems, without these extra costs and extra work, the treatment of 100% liquid waste is the answer to solve the existing problem in a financially viable, sustainable and affordable way. And this is provided by the Septopure® technology. With this technology no sewerage network systems are expected to construct, the technology can offer a return on investment and operating costs of less than €10 per person per year instead of the €50-100 per person per year operating costs in the developed world. And this can be quite attractive to private investors, and water-related project financing gaps can be reduced. This is the first aspect of accelerating SDG implementation. Moreover, the technology solution includes not only the development itself but also professional training programs focused on retaining the local workforce and preparing them to operate the designed and built systems. To provide not only technological solutions but sustainability from a public health point of view. Groundwater and surface water contamination will be eliminated, and the impact on the environment as well as hazards to health will be remarkably reduced. On the basis of economic calculations and the experience with our Ghanaian project, it can be reasonably stated that this solution is the most cost-effective and sustainable method for the treatment of 100% liquid waste, both from a development and operational costs-related point of view if we take into consideration the fact that construction of sewerage networks is not possible, and if we have to fulfil the strict environmental-related effluent requirements.