Flows of Science

The Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology (Eawag) is one of the world’s most highly regarded water research organisations. Today, there are more than 300 scientists. For more than 75 years, its pioneering work has had positive impacts on the Swiss water sector.

In recent years the Blue Diversion Toilet has been one of Eawag’s most visible products. At first glance it is a reinvention of the toilet so that it operates off-the-grid but it is so much more than that.

As this report shows, Blue Diversion was not created in a vacuum. It is a consolidation of nearly three decades of research and capacity building. Collectively many different scientists have worked together to re-imagine sustainable urban wastewater management.

Technically, scientists at Eawag label their reinvention of the toilet under the banner, “Source Separation Technologies”. In short, the technology attempts to capture resources at the source by separating feces, urine and used water before they are mixed together and piped away.

Flows of Science charts the history of source separation technology at Eawag from 1992 to 2017.

As this is living history, within the last twenty-five years, the report uses an oral history method. Compiled from interviews with leading scientists and focus groups and nearly 30 hours of recording it is an intimate story of scientists at work.

Scientists have stories to tell and this report captures some of those. Most apparent in the history of source separation at Eawag is that science took time and teamwork. Placing value on these two attributes, as Flows of Science shows, is a fundamental part of judging scientific practice.