Electronic waste may be defined as discarded computers, office electronic equipment, entertainment device electronics, mobile phones, television sets and refrigerators. This definition includes used electronics which are destined for reuse, resale, salvage, recycling, or disposal. Others define the re-usables (working and repairable electronics) and secondary scrap (copper, steel, plastic, etc.) to be "commodities", and reserve the term "waste" for residue or material which is dumped by the buyer rather than recycled, including residue from reuse and recycling operations.

An approach that aims to safely recycle nutrients, water and/or energy contained in excreta and wastewater in such a way that the use of non-renewable resources is minimized.

The Ecological Society of America (ESA) is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization of scientists founded in 1915 to: promote ecological science by improving communication among ecologists; raise the public's level of awareness of the importance of ecological science; increase the resources available for the conduct of ecological science; and ensure the appropriate use of ecological science in environmental decision making by enhancing communication between the ecological community and policy-makers.

Economic issues provides readers with a short background on the economic importance of water and sanitation.

With economic tools, people change their behaviour because the want to achieve maximal benefit at minimal cost. Economic tools involve the use of prices and other market-based instruments to provide monetary incentives to change behaviour.

The guidelines and toolbox presented in the GTZ ecosan source book aim to address the needs and interests of initiators, planners, practitioners and other stakeholders in the preparation and implementation of ecological sanitation (ecosan) projects. This process should be participation oriented, including all stakeholders. The GTZ ecosan approach aims to supply these groups with methods, material, information and ideas as to how they structure the working steps of a particular project.

The benefits derived from material and energy flows in an ecosystem.

The Ecoville is a permanent relocation site for victims of the Sendong typhoon, in Barangay Lumbia. The settlement is currently under construction and aims at becoming a sustainable and self-reliant community. Xavier University donated the land for this site and is organising its construction and development.

EM stands for Effective Microorganism referring to mixed culture microbial inoculants composed of several species of beneficial microorganism (lactic acid bacteria, photosynthetic bacteria, and yeast). The microorganism live together in symbiosis, each one produces something that is needed by the other one and it is pathogen free. EMs are mainly used as soil amendment or to control waste degradation. EM has been trademarked and is available commercially. But it is often expensive and spoils after some weeks as they are manipulated for commercialisation. Effective microorganisms, depending on the purpose, can also be obtained at home. For lacto-fermentation the easiest way to obtain an effective microbial mix is probably to take an inoculum from sauerkraut (pickled sour cabbage) liquid.

Effluent is the general term for a liquid that leaves a technology, typically after blackwater or sludge has undergone solids separation or some other type of treatment. Effluent originates at either a collection and Storage or a (semi-) centralized treatment technology. Depending on the type of treatment, the effluent maybe completely sanitized or may require further treatment before it can be used or disposed of.

The measured electric conductivity is used as a surrogate measure of total dissolved solids (TDS) concentration. By measuring the electrical conductivity of treated wastewater, its salinity can be assessed. Salt content is an important parameter for agricultural wastewater reuse.

The term emergency is used to describe the crisis that arises when a community has great difficulty in coping with a disaster. Disasters can be either natural or induced by humans, can be slow or sudden onset and they result in a serious disruption of society, cause widespread human suffering and physical loss or damage, and stretch the community’s normal coping mechanisms to breaking point.

Emergency phases roughly describe the steps that affected people go through after an emergency. They typically include: immediate or acute emergency phase, about 1 week up to 3 months after the event; stabilisation phase, typically starting after 2-4 weeks and lasting until 2-6 months after the event; recovery phase with long-term action, taking several months and up to 1 or more years; settlement or long-term phase, lasting perhaps for years after the disaster. The exact duration depends on the event and the context of the emergency. Duration is not time-bound but rather depends on the achievement of set targets (indicators).

Im water-related emergencies, modular water treatment units of different sizes are applied to immediately provide safe drinking-water. They are called Emergency Response Units.

A technology that has moved beyond the laboratory and small-pilot phase and is being implemented at a scale that indicates that expansion is possible.

EMPOWERS is a regional programme mainly funded by the European Commission's MEDA (Mediterranean Regional Programme for Local Water Management) Water Programme, working in Egypt, Jordan, West Bank and Gaza. The EMPOWERS partnership aims at improving vulnerable populations’ long-term access and rights to water. For this, it follows a participatory water planning and management process with all stakeholders. The EMPOWERS approach seeks to improve water governance at the local level (water users; communities) and at the intermediate level (decentralised water managements and service providers in districts and states). The Guideline provided by EMPOWERS constitutes a practical and logical framework of activities based on the involvement of those who use and manage water, which leads towards improved local water governance and the development and implementation of integrated water development plans for towns, districts and villages. Furthermore, the guidelines advocate collaboration through dialogue to bring about a change in a way that water management professionals and water users work with each other.

Enabling Environment (EE) is a broad term that is being defined in various ways. The EE is mostly seen as “the broader system” in which individuals, organizations and business function (UNDP, 2008). The EE can “facilitate or hamper” the existence and performance of these players. It includes both ‘enabling factors’ as well as ‘barriers’ (AMJAD ET AL., 2015).

End-of-pipe techniques are methods used to remove already formed contaminants from a stream of air, water, waste, product or similar (instead of using cleaner production options). These techniques are called 'end-of-pipe' as they are normally implemented as a last stage of a process before the stream is disposed of or delivered.

The utilisation of products derived from a sanitation system.

Energisers are facilitation exercises. They raise the energy level of a training session by gaining back people’s attention and interest and therefore improving the training by itself. Enjoyable activities which refresh the group can be incorporated within a training course in order to stimulate the participants either physically, mentally or at best both together. It is very important to adjust the type of energisers as well as the required time frame and material to the specific context of the training.

Power derived from the utilisation of physical or chemical resources (e.g. the conversion of biogas to electricity), especially used to provide light and heat or to work machines.

Converts chemical energy (e.g. from diesel, petroleum) to mechanical energy.

Enhanced biological phosphorus removal (EBPR) is a wastewater treatment configuration applied to activated sludge systems for the removal of phosphate. It is based on the cultivation of special polyphosphate-accumulating organisms (PAO) in the anaerobic tank prior to the aeration tank. These bacteria accumulate large quantities of polyphosphate within their cells resulting in the accumulation of phosphorus in the biomass. The biomass is separated from the treated water at the end of the process and the phosphorus is thus removed. Generally speaking, all bacteria contain a fraction (1-2%) of phosphorus in their biomass due to its presence in cellular components, such as membrane phospholipids and DNA. Therefore as bacteria in a wastewater treatment plant consume nutrients in the wastewater, they grow and phosphorus is incorporated into the bacterial biomass. When PAOs grow they do not only consume phosphorus for cellar components but also accumulate large quantities of polyphosphate within their cells. Thus, the phosphorus fraction of phosphorus accumulating biomass is 5-7%.

ENPHO is a service-oriented national Non Governmental Organization, established in 1990 that envisages contributing in sustainable community development by combining research and actions through the integrated programs in the environment and public health areas.

Ensuring sustainability includes measures and actions to make a project sustainable, i.e. socially viable, economically feasible, and economically durable, and also lasting.

Enterohaemorrhagic E. coli (EHEC), can cause severe foodborne disease. It is transmitted to humans primarily through consumption of contaminated foods, such as raw or undercooked ground meat products and raw milk.

Symptoms of the diseases caused by EHEC include abdominal cramps and diarrhoea that may in some cases progress to bloody diarrhoea (haemorrhagic colitis). Fever and vomiting may also occur.

EPEC are defined as E. coli belonging to serogroups epidemiologically implicated as pathogens but whose virulence mechanism is unrelated to the excretion of typical E. coli enterotoxins.

Infection with ETEC is the leading cause of travellers' diarrhoea and a major cause of diarrheal disease in underdeveloped nations, especially among children. ETEC is transmitted by food or water contaminated with animal or human faeces. Although ETEC causes a significant amount of illness worldwide, the infection will end on its own and is rarely life-threatening.

Environmental Council of Zambia

The minimum flow required keeping water related ecosystems alive.

An environmental impact assessment identifies and predicts the impact on of a measure or project on the environment and on man's health and well-being before the project is realised. Based on these potential consequences, alternative strategies may be sought or the project may be cancelled altogether if the impact is too negative. An EIA is completed with an auditing at project termination which compares actual outcomes with predicted outcomes.

Making water management and sanitation more sustainable requires a certain degree of background knowledge on environmental issues such as the natural water and nutrient loops, the global extent of water pollution, plant requirements or land degradation.

Interventions that reduce peoples’ exposure to disease by providing a clean environment in which to live, with measures to break the cycle of disease. This usually includes hygienic management of human and animal excreta, solid waste, wastewater, and stormwater; the control of disease vectors; and the provision of washing facilities for personal and domestic hygiene. Environmental Sanitation involves both behaviours and facilities that work together to form a hygienic environment.

Escherichia Coli is a type of bacteria that inhabits the intestinal tract of humans and other mammals. It is not necessarily harmful, but it is used as an indicator of faecal contamination of water.

European Community

The enrichment of water, both fresh and saline, by nutrients (especially the compounds of nitrogen and phosphorus) that accelerate the growth of algae and higher forms of plant life and lead to the depletion of oxygen, blockage of sunlight and increasing temperatures. These changes may harm the original ecosystem. Eutrophication may occur naturally or as the result of anthropogenic influences (e.g. water pollution). Eutrophic comes from the Greek word eutrophos meaning well nourished. Eutrophic waters are distinguished from logographic waters, characterised by a nutrient deficiency, and mesotrophic waters with an intermediate level of productivity.

The phase change from liquid to gas that takes place below the boiling temperature and normally occurs on the surface of a liquid.

Evapotranspiration beds are an alternative secondary treatment solution for greywater, pre-treated effluents from septic tanks, anal cleansing water or urine from urine diversion toilets in areas with high groundwater tables, or with soils that prevent wastewater percolation and where the productive reuse of these wastewater flowstreams is not a preferred option. The respective wastewater effluents are discharged into sealed up receptacles where the water evaporates from the soil or transpires from the plants growing there in a process called evapotranspiration. The dissolved organic matter is removed by bacteria and the remaining nutrients are taken up by plants.

The combined loss of water from a surface by evaporation and plant transpiration. It is the process by which water is transferred from vegetated soil to the atmosphere.

Ex-situ emergency response is addressed to people that have (temporary) left their homes. The level and type of displacement vary. Settlements generally fall into one of the three categories: highly dispersed (dispersed settlement or host families); mass shelters (e.g. in schools, warehouses or mosques, mostly in urban areas) or in self-settlements (spontaneous camps) or previously planned camps (UNHCR 2007). People living ex-situ after an emergency event have the status of internally displaced persons, IDPs, or that of refugees if they cross international boundaries.

Excreta consists of urine and faeces that is not mixed with any flushwater. Excreta is small in volume, but concentrated in both nutrients and pathogens. Depending on the quality of the faeces, it has a soft or runny consistency.

Executing includes all the necessary activities to actually execute or implement a project (i.e., after the conceptualisation/planning phase).

These are tools to assess the current status and identify problems in a participatory manner, to define boundaries and to find out about who the important stakeholders are.

An external combustion engine is a heat engine where an (internal) working fluid is heated by combustion of an external source, through the engine wall or a heat exchanger. The fluid then, by expanding and acting on the mechanism of the engine produces motion and usable work. The fluid is then cooled, compressed and reused in a closed cycle. Unlike the steam engine's use of water in both its liquid and gaseous phases as the working fluid, the Stirling engine encloses a fixed quantity of permanently gaseous fluid such as air or helium. As in all heat engines, the general cycle consists of compressing cool gas, heating the gas, expanding the hot gas, and finally cooling the gas before repeating the cycle.

Water used for the production of an imported good.

The Compendium of Sanitation Systems and Technologies was first published in 2008 during the International Year of Sanitation, and the Second Edition will be published late 2013.
The document's popularity is its brevity - ordering and structuring a huge range of information on tried and tested technologies in a single document. As in the first edition only proven technologies that are appropriate for low- and middle-income settings are presented. Also, only improved sanitation technologies are presented, featuring safe, hygienic, and accessible sanitation. In the eCompendium edition the whole range of urban, peri-urban and rural technologies (e.g. from simple pits to conventional sewers) are presented.