Reliable planning of sanitation service chain solutions in emergencies
The eCompendium is a comprehensive and well-structured online capacity development and decision support tool that allows real time filtering and configuration of entire sanitation service chain solutions in emergency settings. It provides detailed information on key decision criteria for all tried and tested emergency sanitation technologies, information on cross-cutting issues and available case studies, relevant to come up with informed sanitation technology decisions in emergencies.
Decision Support Tool
The eCompendium is a systematic compilation of all relevant emergency sanitation technologies. It disaggregates the sanitation service chain into their functional components, defines key terminology and provides concise information on key decision criteria for a wide range of emergency sanitation technologies and related cross-cutting issues. It facilitates informed decision-making by providing the necessary framework for identifying appropriate technology combinations in a given context and for configuring entire sanitation service chain solutions: from the toilet via collection, transport, treatment to safe disposal and reuse.
Real-Time Configuration and Sharing
The eCompendium allows for a targeted and context-specific filtering of technologies and the real time configuration of entire sanitation service chain solutions. All individual configurations made when using the available filter options and the configurator tool can be easily shared with interested colleagues and other sanitation practitioners. Relevant technology information and cross-cutting issues can be pre-selected and shared or further discussed with an online-community of sanitation experts and practitioners.
From Relief to Development
The eCompendium addresses a broad spectrum of scenarios that humanitarian WASH practitioners may encounter when planning, implementing and operating appropriate sanitation services, covering technologies suitable from the acute response over the stabilisation up to the recovery phase. This is seen crucial as the humanitarian community has been increasingly confronted with longer-term and protracted crises, with an increased need to also take sustainability aspects into account and to contribute to the complementarity between the humanitarian and development realms.
Target Audience
The eCompendium mainly targets humanitarian field workers, local first responders, engineers, planners, relevant government representatives, academic institutions, capacity building agencies and WASH professionals involved in humanitarian WASH response and subsequent stabilisation and recovery activities.
Open-Source Tool
All provided information and graphics are open-source and free of charge. Permission is granted for sharing and reproduction, in whole or part, for education, scientific, humanitarian or development related purposes except those involving commercial sale, and provided that full citation of the source is made.
Collaboration
The eCompendium is a collaborative effort of Global WASH Cluster partners, the German WASH Network, Eawag and SuSanA with contributions from a wide range of international sector experts and organisations. It will be constantly updated and users are encouraged to provide direct feedback or engage in the discussion forum in order to ensure the quality and to further improve the platform.
X-Cutting Issues
The selection of an appropriate combination of sanitation technologies does not obey to technical considerations only. It is influenced by a multitude of surrounding factors and cross-cutting issues. This section presents cross-cutting issues and background information that should be considered when making technology and design decisions.
Glossary
A separate glossary section has been added that allows getting familiar with some of the key terms and vocabulary used for sanitation technologies, the functional groups they belong to and its involved input and output products.
Help Section
This section provides helpful information regarding structure and use of the eCompendium, details on all available tools and functionalities of the website and a lot more information in order to get better acquainted with the eCompendium.
