Abstract
Historically, sanitation infrastructures have been designed to do away with sensory experiences. As in the present phase of modernity the senses are assigned a crucial role in the perception of risks, a paradigm shift has emerged in the infrastructural provision of energy, water and waste services. This has led to a partial re-localization and resensitization of services. Present systems are designed to make the invisible visible again. This chapter analyzes what these tendencies mean for waste water and sanitation service provision. It outlines the paradigm shifts being made in infrastructural provision and its consequences for the senses, using case studies of sanitation innovation in Europe to illustrate new dynamics in the display and perception of sanitation infrastructures. Based on a theoretical discussion of sensitization of infrastructural service provisions, a framework is presented for analyzing the possible relationships between senses and sanitation.
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Notes
- 1.
Some figures from Milieu en Natuur Compendium (2008): Household consumers in the Netherlands were responsible for about 750 million cubic meters of drinking water production, the emission (via sewerages) of 76% of all Nitrogen to open waters; they are directly responsible for the production of 15% of all solid waste and they directly consume 19% of total energy production (excluding fuels for traffic). (www.milieuennatuurcompendium.nl)
- 2.
DOMUS: Domestic Consumption and Utility Services, EU Framework Four funded project (1997-2000) on environmental innovation in water, energy and waste sectors in the Netherlands, United Kingdom and Sweden (Chappells et al. 2000). DESAR: Decentralized Sanitation and Reuse: National funded (EET) project (2001-2007) on decentralized sanitation and social opportunities and risks (Hegger et al. 2008).
- 3.
- 4.
Access points are described by Anthony Giddens as the points where lay-people get in contact with representatives of the expert systems, like the butchery for the food chain or the doctors’ room for the medical system (Giddens 1990).
- 5.
Only in 2003, National Parliament approved a new Law securing that drinking water supply companies will remain public entities.
- 6.
As late as in 2007, newspaper ‘De Gelderlander’ (7-12-2007 and 12-07-2007) reported on the failed household water projects in Arnhem and Wageningen by using the term ‘grey water’. Interestingly, another newspaper (Utrechts Nieuwsblad 06-08-2007) uses the term ‘household water’ while referring to all wastewater from households.
- 7.
Site visit by author to eco village Braamwisch, Hamburg, 9 April 2003.
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van Vliet, B., Spaargaren, G. (2010). Sense and Sanitation. In: van Vliet, B., Spaargaren, G., Oosterveer, P. (eds) Social Perspectives on the Sanitation Challenge. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-3721-3_3
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