Research Paper Human excreta: a resource or a taboo? Assessing the socio-cultural barriers, acceptability, and reuse of human excreta as a resource in Kakul Village District Abbottabad, Northwestern Pakistan Abda Khalid ABSTRACT Sustainable reuse of human excreta in socially and religiously conservative societies is extremely difficult. People’s perceptions and acceptability regarding the reuse of human excreta is mainly linked to their culture. In addition, certain societies regard the cultural and social barriers more than the religious barriers. The aim of this study is to understand the perceptions of people about the reuse of human excreta for agricultural purposes. Qualitative research methods were used for data collection. Farmers in the village recognized the importance and economic benefit of reusing human excreta. They accepted the reuse of human excreta on their farms only if they were supplied with a treatment facility. Contrary to the farmers, the local community showed reluctance in reusing human excreta while recognizing the nutritional value of it. It was therefore concluded that the main barrier in sustainable and safe re-use of human excreta lies in socio-cultural and religious foundations of traditional societies like Kakul village in Abbottabad District. Abda Khalid COMSTATS Institute of Information Technology, Abbottabad, Pakistan E-mail: abda@ciit.net.pk Key words | accessibility, feces, human excreta, recycling, rural, urine INTRODUCTION Communities round the globe identify themselves with bio- regions and are actively re-localizing their material resources. The focus of the localized issue revolves mostly around food security. However, the focus as predicted by researchers will soon shift to the other end of the nutrient cycle, i.e. recycling of human waste (Murtaza et al. ). Many researchers working on recycling of human waste argued that the blind flushing of excreta is equal to flushing of our personal responsibility. Therefore, in Pakistan too, excreta disposal is very complicated and is linked with var- ious issues. The two major aspects of excreta mishandling are, first, the excreta which is not disposed of properly gets mixed with underground drinking water aquifer, second, the multiple, socio-cultural and religious taboos related to recycling and disposing of excreta (Murtaza et al. ). Similarly in the case of Pakistan, to address the possi- bility of the reuse of human excreta it is mandatory to probe deeper and carefully into socio-cultural barriers. The existing body of literature and critical analyses of the insti- tutional setup in the country shows that there are no specific rules and regulations which address the scientific incorporation of recycled human excreta in the fields, nor is there any concept of ecological sanitation or decentra- lized systems. The sanitation ladder stops at the Community Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) approach, which means that the harmful effects of sanitation are not yet 71 Research Paper © IWA Publishing 2018 Journal of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene for Development | 08.1 | 2018 doi: 10.2166/washdev.2017.019 Downloaded from http://iwaponline.com/washdev/article-pdf/8/1/71/512561/washdev0080071.pdf by guest on 30 July 2022