There are hundreds of technologies that may be part of the technological environment of your local water and sanitation system, depending on such factors as water sources available, water use (e.g. agriculture, industry, or domestic use), wastewater quality, and wastewater reuse possibilities. The specific technologies that may be employed in your area depend on numerous environmental and social factors such as water availability, scale (e.g. household vs. community), rural vs. urban settings, degree of social change necessary, and technical complexity of the technology. For more information on relevant technologies, see:
- Water sources: invalid link, groundwater sources, precipitation harvesting, and soil water conservation
- Water purification: point of use water treatment, water purification in emergencies, and semi centralised drinking water treatments
- Water distribution: water distribution networks, distribution pipes and channels, non piped distribution
- Water use: optimisation of water use at home, in industry, and in agriculture, water reuse in agriculture, water for energy, and different types of toilet systems
- Wastewater collection: cartage, sewers, and surface runoff
- Wastewater treatment: different types of user interface, onsite storage and treatments, semi centralised wastewater treatments, sludge treatment, greywater and solid waste treatment
- Reuse and recharge of wastewater and nutrients: reuse of urine and faeces in agriculture, reuse of blackwater and greywater in agriculture, wastewater recharge and disposal, energy products from sludge, and reuse in household and industry
In the scan of your technological environment, keep in mind the following questions: what technologies are currently in use? How are these technologies changing, and what opportunities for new technologies are emerging to reduce costs, improve quality, or lead to innovation?
Doing Environmental Scanning
This guide provides you with an overview of doing environmental scanning in your organisation. The aim is to allow you to build an understanding of the environmental scanning process and what is involved.
CONWAY, M. (2009): Doing Environmental Scanning. An Overview Guide. Hotham Hill, Australia: Thinking Futures URL [Accessed: 22.08.2012]Environmental scanning
This web article contains a thorough list of references regarding environmental scanning, as well as concepts and theories developed in the last decades. It also contains an interesting analysis of the external environment of Higher Education, which could be used for those planning starting up a business in the training sector of water and sanitation.
MORRISON, J.L. (1992): Environmental scanning. In: WHITELY, M.A. ; PORTER, J.D. ; FENSKE, R.H. (1992): A primer for new institutional researchers. Tallahassee, Florida: 86-99. URL [Accessed: 22.08.2012]http://www.thinkingfutures.net
This site presents valuable tools on how to carry out an environmental scanning in an effective manner. Furthermore, it offers resources to redesign the strategy of a company by changing the way of thinking about the future.
http://www.jiscinfonet.ac.uk
This online infoKit presents a wealth of tools for the implementation of effective strategic planning and managing of information, including environmental scanning.
http://horizon.unc.edu
This is a web page that details techniques and considerations that should be taken into account for environmental scanning, as well as a list of resources where more information about environmental scanning can be found.
WASH Sustainability Index Tool
The WASH Sustainability Index Tool, developed for the USAID-Rotary International H2O Collaboration, is a tool to assess sustainability of WASH programs. The tool considers the sustainability of institutional, management, financial, technical and environmental factors.