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Urban Sanitation Management Course

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Environment and Sustainability

Environment

Urban Sanitation Management Course

For all levels

Urban Sanitation Management Course

Name: Urban Sanitation Management Course
Price: 1794 ZAR

Master the full spectrum of urban sanitation — from wastewater treatment and stormwater drainage to solid waste management and governance. This course gives you the technical knowledge and planning skills to design, operate, and sustain sanitation systems in real urban environments. Whether you work in public health, engineering, or municipal planning, this is the training that moves your career forward.

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What you will learn:

You will build a solid technical foundation in excreta management, wastewater treatment processes, and stormwater drainage systems. You will learn how to plan city-wide sanitation services, conduct needs assessments, and integrate climate resilience into infrastructure design. The course also covers solid waste management, resource recovery, and circular economy approaches. You will gain practical skills in operations, asset management, and sanitation safety planning. On the governance side, you will analyse financing mechanisms, regulatory frameworks, and institutional arrangements. By the end, you will be equipped to contribute to sanitation projects at every stage, from planning and design through to operations and policy reform.

How you study in practice Urban Sanitation Management Course

How you practise Urban Sanitation Management Course

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Course content

8 Chapters • 39 LessonsDuration between 4 and 360 hours (you decide)

Chapter 1See details

Foundations of Urban Sanitation

Lesson 1 • Defining Urban Sanitation
Covers the scope, terminology, and components of urban sanitation systems. Provides the conceptual baseline for all subsequent technical and operational content.
Lesson 2 • Sanitation Service Delivery Models
Introduces centralised, decentralised, and hybrid service models. Helps students recognise which model applies to different urban contexts.
Lesson 3 • Global Sanitation Challenges
Surveys unmet sanitation needs in rapidly urbanising regions and informal settlements. Frames the professional context students will operate in throughout the course.
Lesson 4 • Public Health and Sanitation Links
Examines how inadequate sanitation drives disease transmission and mortality. Connects epidemiological evidence to the rationale for professional sanitation practice.

Chapter 2See details

Excreta Management Systems

Lesson 1 • Sewer Network Fundamentals
Introduces gravity sewers, simplified sewers, and condominial systems. Provides the hydraulic and layout principles needed for network planning in later chapters.
Lesson 2 • Sanitation Safety Planning
Introduces risk-based frameworks for identifying hazards across the sanitation chain. Grounds students in systematic safety thinking before advancing to treatment design.
Lesson 3 • On-Site Containment Structures
Covers pit latrines, septic tanks, and improved containment designs. Connects containment performance to downstream treatment and environmental outcomes.
Lesson 4 • Faecal Sludge Collection and Transport
Examines manual and mechanised emptying methods and transport logistics. Prepares students to manage the non-sewered portion of urban sanitation chains.
Lesson 5 • Toilet Technology Overview
Surveys flush, pour-flush, dry, and composting toilet types. Establishes the technology spectrum students will evaluate in later design and planning tasks.

Chapter 3See details

Wastewater Treatment Processes

Lesson 1 • Preliminary and Primary Treatment
Covers screening, grit removal, and primary sedimentation as the first treatment stages. Establishes the load reduction baseline that secondary processes depend on.
Lesson 2 • Tertiary and Advanced Treatment
Introduces filtration, disinfection, and nutrient polishing for high-quality effluent. Prepares students to specify treatment levels required for reuse or sensitive discharge.
Lesson 3 • Treatment Plant Performance Monitoring
Teaches key performance indicators, sampling protocols, and data interpretation for treatment plants. Enables students to assess and report on operational effectiveness.
Lesson 4 • Faecal Sludge Treatment Technologies
Covers co-treatment, drying beds, and anaerobic digestion specific to faecal sludge. Bridges on-site containment knowledge with treatment plant design.
Lesson 5 • Biological Secondary Treatment
Examines activated sludge, trickling filters, and constructed wetlands for organic removal. Connects microbial processes to measurable effluent quality parameters.

Chapter 4See details

Stormwater and Drainage Management

Lesson 1 • Combined Sewer Overflow Management
Addresses causes, impacts, and control strategies for combined sewer overflows. Prepares students to manage legacy infrastructure in older urban systems.
Lesson 2 • Conventional Drainage Infrastructure
Covers open channels, culverts, and underground storm drains for urban runoff conveyance. Connects hydraulic principles to practical infrastructure sizing.
Lesson 3 • Flood Risk and Resilience Planning
Integrates drainage design with urban flood risk assessment and climate adaptation. Connects stormwater management to broader urban resilience strategies.
Lesson 4 • Green Infrastructure for Stormwater
Examines bioretention, permeable pavements, and green roofs as nature-based drainage solutions. Expands students' design toolkit beyond conventional grey infrastructure.
Lesson 5 • Urban Hydrology Fundamentals
Introduces rainfall-runoff relationships, catchment analysis, and impervious surface effects. Provides the hydrological basis for all drainage design decisions.

Chapter 5See details

Solid Waste Management in Urban Areas

Lesson 1 • Collection and Transfer Systems
Examines primary collection, transfer stations, and vehicle routing for efficient waste pickup. Connects operational logistics to service coverage and cost outcomes.
Lesson 2 • Landfill Design and Operation
Teaches engineered landfill design, leachate management, and landfill gas control. Prepares students to assess and manage final disposal sites responsibly.
Lesson 3 • Waste Characterisation and Generation
Covers waste composition analysis, generation rates, and factors driving urban waste volumes. Establishes the data foundation for system sizing and planning.
Lesson 4 • Organic Waste and Composting
Covers composting, anaerobic digestion, and vermicomposting for organic fraction management. Links organic waste treatment to nutrient recovery and soil health outcomes.
Lesson 5 • Recycling and Resource Recovery
Introduces source separation, material recovery facilities, and informal recycler integration. Positions waste as a resource stream within the urban sanitation system.

Chapter 6See details

Sanitation Planning and Urban Design

Lesson 1 • Sanitation Master Planning
Teaches the structure, content, and process for developing a city sanitation master plan. Prepares students to lead or contribute to long-term planning exercises.
Lesson 2 • Infrastructure Siting and Layout
Examines criteria for siting treatment plants, transfer stations, and public facilities. Connects spatial planning principles to sanitation infrastructure decisions.
Lesson 3 • Climate-Resilient Sanitation Design
Integrates climate risk screening into sanitation infrastructure design and siting. Ensures students can future-proof systems against extreme weather and sea-level rise.
Lesson 4 • Sanitation Needs Assessment
Covers data collection, mapping, and gap analysis for urban sanitation needs. Provides the analytical tools students need before designing any intervention.
Lesson 5 • City-Wide Inclusive Sanitation
Introduces the city-wide inclusive sanitation framework for equitable service planning. Grounds students in a planning approach that addresses all urban populations.

Chapter 7See details

Operations, Maintenance, and Asset Management

Lesson 1 • Sewer and Drain Maintenance
Examines blockage detection, jetting, and rehabilitation techniques for pipe networks. Connects network condition to service continuity and public health protection.
Lesson 2 • Service Continuity and Contingency Planning
Covers contingency plans, redundancy design, and rapid response for service disruptions. Prepares students to maintain sanitation services during emergencies and failures.
Lesson 3 • Asset Management Systems
Introduces asset registers, condition assessment, and lifecycle cost analysis for sanitation assets. Enables students to make evidence-based investment and replacement decisions.
Lesson 4 • Treatment Plant Operations
Teaches daily operational tasks, process control, and troubleshooting for treatment facilities. Prepares students to maintain consistent effluent quality under variable conditions.
Lesson 5 • Preventive Maintenance Principles
Covers scheduled inspection, cleaning, and component replacement to prevent failures. Establishes the proactive maintenance mindset central to reliable service delivery.

Chapter 8See details

Sanitation Governance, Finance, and Policy

Lesson 1 • Regulatory Frameworks and Compliance
Introduces discharge standards, service quality regulations, and enforcement mechanisms. Connects regulatory compliance to operational and investment planning.
Lesson 2 • Institutional Arrangements for Sanitation
Maps the roles of utilities, municipalities, regulators, and private operators in sanitation governance. Provides the institutional context for all policy and finance decisions.
Lesson 3 • Policy Reform and Sector Strengthening
Examines drivers of sanitation policy reform and strategies for building sector capacity. Prepares students to advocate for and implement systemic improvements.
Lesson 4 • External Financing and Investment
Examines development finance, blended finance, and municipal bonds for sanitation investment. Prepares students to identify and mobilise external capital for infrastructure projects.
Lesson 5 • Sanitation Finance Fundamentals
Covers tariff design, cost recovery principles, and the finance gap in urban sanitation. Equips students to assess financial sustainability of sanitation services.

Certification

Your valid completion certificate

This course is for you:

Civil engineers: seeking to expand expertise into sanitation systems and urban infrastructure.
Public health professionals: wanting technical grounding to complement their epidemiological knowledge.
Municipal planners: responsible for integrating sanitation into city development strategies.
Development sector practitioners: managing WASH programmes in rapidly urbanising or low-income contexts.
Environmental consultants: advising on wastewater, drainage, or solid waste impact assessments.
Career changers: transitioning into urban infrastructure from adjacent fields like geography or policy.

What our students say

Your lessons are perfect. I purchased the one-year package and finally have the opportunity to follow various topics of interest without needing to change platforms... I'm grateful for everything you do, I've already recommended you to other people...