The acceleration of sanitation delivery towards meeting the South African Government's target of completely eradicating the existing backlogs by 2010, has led to a surge of activities. As part of its strategy for ensuring that basic sanitation is provided, the policy has recommended that a ventilated improved pit latrine (VIP) is considered as the basic minimum requirement in the form of a sanitation technology. The up-scaling and delivering of sanitation in many cases in the form of VIPs and its derivatives, as well as urine diversion technology are beginning to pose many technical challenges. The principles on which they have been designed are not always being observed in practice. As a result, some systems are filling up much faster than expected. Research has found that the breakdown in the faeces is not happening as would be expected in an anaerobic reactor, and that the drying of faeces in humid conditions, even with the use of drying agents, is not optimum. These problems, which are being experienced in the field, will have long term repercussions on the sustainability of sanitation provision. This paper aims to share these experiences and findings of research, and the impact it may have on the Sanitation MDG goals.

A multiple criteria decision analysis (MCDA) was developed for the selection of sanitation systems. This decision support system was aimed at assisting municipal engineers to design and implement sustainable solutions to meet a municipality's obligation to provide free basic sanitation (FBS). Multi-attribute value theory (MAVT) was selected as the method most suited to the problem under consideration. Criteria which determine the sustainability of sanitation were selected from the literature and a spreadsheet-based MCDA with stakeholder and expert user interfaces was developed. Stakeholders determine the weighting of each indicator and expert users determine the values to be entered for the alternatives against each indicator. The partial values are aggregated using a weighted sum function. Research carried out into the implementation of FBS by the eThekwini Municipality that includes the city of Durban was analysed. This informed the allocation of indicator values to the sanitation alternatives under consideration: ventilated improved pit latrines (VIPs) and urine diversion dehydrating toilets (UDDTs). An innovative scenario analysis method was used to determine the effect of different weightings and/or values, representing changes in stakeholder involvement, resource recovery and political support for ecological sanitation. The MCDA was found to provide a guiding framework for municipal engineers in their efforts to implement sustainable sanitation. The process of deriving values for the MCDA is likely to prove even more useful than the overall value scores of the options under consideration.