The first global-scale assessment of the role ecosystems play in providing sanitation finds that nature provides at least 18% of sanitation services in 48 cities worldwide, according to researchers in the United Kingdom and India. The study, published February 19 in the journal One Earth, estimates that more than 2 million cubic meters of the cities’ human waste is processed each year without engineered infrastructure. This includes pit latrine waste that gradually filters through the soil—a natural process that cleans it before it reaches groundwater.
Click here for original story, Global study of 48 cities finds nature sanitizes 41.7 million tons of human waste a year
Source: Phys.org