
From urban waste to sustainable value chains: Linking sanitation and agriculture through innovative partnerships
Widespread water pollution associated with nutrient and pathogenic contaminants is threatening public health and ecosystems in urban and rural areas in Sri Lanka. Better management of the source of this pollution – primarily untreated or poorly treated waste and mismanagement of fertilizers and soil – can simultaneously improve health, food security, and enhance climate change adaptation and environmental water quality. This project seeks to answer the question: What are the enablers and barriers for public and private institutions in Sri Lanka to advance the implementation of sustainable and innovative value chains to improve sanitation, health, and food security? It will establish the knowledge, linkages, and policy foundations for enabling local entrepreneurs and policy makers to implement innovating value chains that determine how urban waste and sanitation systems can be transformed to deliver smallholder farmers with agriculture inputs such as organic fertilizer. Researchers leading this project are adopting a nexus approach to focus on the practicalities and practices of organic waste value chains – defined as value chains that can enable sustainable, safe recycling and re-use of organic matter, such as human excreta, to deliver agricultural inputs, and business opportunities to local entrepreneurs.