Exploring the energy-food-health nexus in India: the role of human excreta in developing sustainable rural futures

In many areas of India, providing energy for the most basic of needs such as cooking and lighting is still a major challenge for the rural poor with the majority of rural households depending on traditional biomass fuels (firewood and agro-waste) and kerosene, both of which have serious health and environmental implications.
Small-scale anaerobic digesters (ADs) can provide a clean, cheap alternative fuel; produce a marketable biofertiliser and reduce gender divisions of labour by reducing the need for women and children to collect fuel wood. Most traditional AD technologies are fed by animal manure and kitchen waste, however, AD technologies that able to convert toilet wastes into methane biogas have the potential to improve sanitation and reduce disease burden in rural communities in the Global South. Despite the potential of this underutilised resource to reduce poverty by improving energy access, reduce the prevalence of diarrhoeal diseases and facilitate more sustainable livelihoods, there are significant social & cultural challenges facing the use of biogas derived from human excreta.
In this project, the student will examine the role of domestic toilet AD systems for improving sustainable rural futures in India in three key areas: (i) by increasing rural household energy security (ii) improving sanitation through the removal of harmful pathogens and (iii) increasing food security and sustainable livelihoods by producing a product that is safe to use as a soil amendment in agronomic systems. Central to this project will be an evaluation of the social & cultural acceptability of handling & processing human excreta in rural India.
The project will adopt methods and theories from both the natural & social sciences and will employ both qualitative & participatory approaches with a significant level of engagement with local communities in India, working closely with our project partners at Tezpur University in Assam.
The successful candidate will be based at the University of Stirling, supervised by Dr Jen Dickie, Dr Richard Quilliam and Dr Ben Campbell (Durham University) and will become embedded within the ‘Environmental Sustainability & Human Health’ research group.