The Blue Community is delighted to welcome a new partner. On World Toilet Day today, 19 November, the Sanitation Ambassadors NPC is joining the Blue Community. Based in Cape Town, South Africa, it is the southernmost Blue Community to date.
Sanitation Ambassadors is a South African non-profit with a global footprint and a bold mission: To build circular sanitation systems that work without kilometers of pipes, pumps, or wastewater plants, using smart design and local action. It started during Cape Town’s water crisis when Scandinavian Water Saving Products began importing Swedish water-saving toilets and taps. That experience revealed something bigger. Water scarcity is only half the problem. Unsafe, polluting sanitation is the other half.
The credo of Sanitation Ambassadors: «Our goal is simple. Make sanitation safe, scalable, and sustainable. If we can manage sh*t right, we can fix almost everything downstream, from water and health to the planet itself.»
In the commitment to the Blue Community, Sanitation Ambassadors state: «At Sanitation Ambassadors, we believe protecting the ocean starts on land. What we produce on land flows into rivers, reefs, and fisheries, so we focus on closing the sanitation loop before it gets that far. Joining the Blue Community Network is a natural fit. We share the same goal of safeguarding water as a shared resource. Our container-based sanitation systems turn waste into safe fertiliser, reducing pollution and protecting marine life. We hope to contribute practical experience from Africa and island regions, where sanitation and ocean health are deeply connected, and to learn from others working toward the same vision of circular, ocean-friendly sanitation. Together we can keep the ocean blue from the ground up.»
And on the website it states: «Having the luxury of flushing comes at a hidden cost. We waste enormous amounts of clean water and electricity just to send diluted waste to treatment plants that only clean it to a limited degree before releasing it back into rivers and oceans. So yes, we’re still swimming in sh*t — just the slightly filtered kind.»
Birger Lundgren, Founder and CEO of Sanitation Ambassadors, declares:
«We believe water and sanitation services should serve the public good, not private profit. Our approach supports municipalities, schools, and communities in developing affordable, decentralised sanitation systems that can be locally owned and maintained. We work to strengthen public capacity rather than replace it, offering technical support, training, and models that can be financed and operated within local government structures. Our goal is to show that safe, circular sanitation can be managed effectively at community and municipal levels with public accountability. By partnering with local authorities and universities, we help build models that are transparent, inclusive, and sustainable for everyone.»
We are delighted to welcome the Sanitation Ambassadors from South Africa to the Blue Community network, and to see our expertise and experience in sanitation growing with this committed new partner.
Learn more about the Sanitation Ambassadors on their website.
