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Sewage

The Goreangab water treatment plant uses a process that partially mimics nature to turn sewage from Winhoek's 300,000 residents back into potable water. It opened in 1968 and was the first such plant in the world.

Recycling sewage into drinking water is no big deal. They’ve been doing it in Namibia for 50 years.

Environment

Water-starved cities around the world are starting to turn to a once-unpalatable solution: recycling their sewage. And they have a surprising pioneer to thank for developing the technology — the southern African desert country of Namibia.

As the Ebola epidemic peaks, new challenges are emerging in Liberia

Now that Ebola is subsiding, the question is what to do with contaminated sewage

Health
One of a fleet of trucks in the Bangalore area that brings untreated sewage from homes to farms, to be used as fertilizer.

Recycled lunch: Using human waste to grow food, and fight climate change

Environment

Waste Not-Composting Toilets in Haiti

Environment

Turning Waste to Fertilizer — Humanure

The World

Problems Underground

America’s sewers are aging and unable to keep up with the amount of sewage and water put in them.

The World

Is the Tijuana River Half Full, or Half Empty?

San Diego County, California has experienced beach closings due to raw sewage outflow from Mexico. Reporter Bebe Crouse visits a prototype sewage plant which treats sewage as a resource rather than a problem. It’s being offered as an alternative to a massive treatment plant, towards which the US Government is contributing half a billion dollars.

The World

Sludge-Eating Fish

Eric Westervelt of New Hampshire Public Radio profiles Terry Welch, a man with a dirty job and a unique idea. Welch uses bottom-feeding fish to break down huge quantities of sludge at his sewage treatment plant. Other sewage managers scoff, but federal sewage experts are taking interest in the process.

The World

Recycling Sewage in Brazil

Living on Earth’s Peter Thomson reports on a pilot low-tech sewage treatment project in rural Brazil. The facility will use water hyacinths and other plants to clean nutrients out of wastewater, and local farmers will then use the plants as compost and cattle feed.

The World

Still a Few Bugs in the System

Living on Earth’s George Homsy reports from Boston on the problems of Combined Sewer Overflows, which plague 1200 communities around the country. Remnants of the days before sewage treatment plants, CSOs allow sewers to overflow into local waterways during heavy rainstorms. Municipalities are appealing to Washington for help in meeting the estimated $200 billion cost […]