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UNEP-IETC Input in the City Summit:
Symposium on ESTs at Habitat II

To be sustainable, cities need Environmentally Sound Technologies (ESTs). ESTs, however, need not be high-tech, ostentatious or even costly to be useful to cities. What matters most is that cities are aware that their sustainable development depends in part upon, among other things, an understanding of ESTs, and their proper application and management.

On 5 June 1996, during the Second World Conference on Human Settlements - Habitat II - in Istanbul, Turkey, IETC and GEC (Global Environment Center Foundation of Japan) will hold a Symposium on Environmentally Sound Technologies with input of the UNEP/UNCHS (Habitat) Sustainable Cities Programme. The Symposium will include two panel discussions. The first panel will discuss 'soft' technologies with a focus on the technologies which IETC is contributing to the Sustainable Cities Programme - Environmental Profiles, Environmental Technology Assessment (EnTA) and Environmental Risk Assessment as important tools for environmental planning and management - and GEC's own technologies for environmental management. The panelists will come from IETC, GEC, the UNEP Industry and Environment office in Paris and USETI (United States Environmental Training Institute). UNEP-IETC will present the joint EnTA Programme, and USETI will discuss public/private partnership building arrangements for promoting 'soft' ESTs.

The second panel will deal with 'hard' technologies, particularly those addressing municipal solid waste management, waste water treatment and recycling. Organizations from four different regions of the world that have developed technologies that mitigate environmental wastes and/or damage have been invited to make presentations on their technologies. Representatives of these organizations will comprise the second panel. The four selected ESTs are:

1. BioTec2120 Solid Waste Management System Developed by AG Environmental Group, Inc. Stamford, Connecticut.
2. Osaka City Solid Waste Management System Osaka City, Japan
3. TgreenU Waste Water Treatment Plant Developed by ENDA-Tiers Monde Dakar, Senegal
4. BIOHOCH Reactor Waste Water Treatment Plant Developed by UHDE, Dortmund, Germany

The technologies have been selected to demonstrate variations of similar technologies that address common environmental problems but under varying social, economic, cultural and geophysical conditions. The idea is to expose decision-makers, policy-makers and urban managers, particularly from local authorities, industry and NGOs, to various ESTs offering options for solving urban environmental problems in their localities. The Osaka City, for example, will present a comprehensive municipal solid waste management scheme that focuses on waste reduction and technological innovations; these include power generation through waste incineration which, in turn, provides heat to nearby communities. The BioTec2120 System developed by the AG Environment Group of Stamford, Connecticut, is a high-tech composting system designed to work with sorted or unsorted municipal solid wastes. It incorporates a variety of equipment to extract non-biodegradables and unwanted non-recyclables. The two systems are different in approach and technique, offering municipalities attractive alternatives which are both efficient and effective.

In the area of waste water management, UHDE's BIOHOCH reactor involves the optimum use of aerobic biologic waste water treatment plants that rely on natural processes taking place in rivers and other surface waters. The reactor is a modern biological waste water treatment system that consists of a cylindrical aeration section and a cone-shaped final clarifier, as opposed to the conventional waste water treatment aeration basins which use surface aerators. The advantages over conventional systems include, high reliability, a freely accessible reactor, no danger to ground water, a totally enclosed design that prevents odor emissions, and encapsulation of all noise sources which minimizes noise emissions. In sharp contrast to this high-tech system is the low-cost community-based TgreenU waste water treatment plant developed by ENDA-Tiers Monde, an NGO in Dakar, Senegal. TgreenU is a purification plant composed of a series of small reservoirs that uses water lettuce as a natural purifier. This is not a new idea, but a revival of a traditional practice that has been in use in Sudan for over a thousand years. The BIOHOCH reactor of UHDE in Germany and the TgreenU system of ENDA-Tiers Monde in Senegal provides local authorities and decision-makers with two distinct choices of appropriate ESTs for particular waste water management needs.

IETC promotes the utilization of ESTs for urban environmental management and the management of freshwater resources. Presently, ESTs for municipal solid waste management and waste water treatment are areas of focus for IETC's research, publications and networking efforts with partners in the international community and in developing and transition-economy countries. IETC is working to promote a broad range of technologies available for solid waste management and waste water treatment and the June symposium will obviously present just a sample of these technologies. While numerous technologies have been developed by various countries, for the June symposium IETC has selected several technologies whose owners have indicated a willingness to share their information. Information on other technologies can be found in our database on EST Information Systems which can be accessed via the internet from the

IETC welcomes all who are interested to the ESTs symposium. Since space is limited to 150-200 persons, however, participants will be accepted on a first come, first served basis.

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