Welcome to the world of SFDs

Improving understanding of urban sanitation

Find guidance and support for creating SFD graphics and reports: the SFD Graphic Generator allows you to create your own SFD graphic for any given city.

New SFD Reports

5 new SFD Reports are available now

There are 5 new SFD Reports from South Africa accessible through our database now

NEW SFD DATA PAGE

The new SFD Data page is now interactive!

Check out the new page where you can compare SFD data from over 150 cities.

New Report available

The report "Managing Septage in Ganga Cities" is now available

SFD Promotion Initiative

Official launch of CSE's SFD Phase 3 activities

Discover the brochure of CSE's SFD Phase III activities. CSE officially launched their SFD phase III in India in collaboration with the Ministry of Jal Shakti, in South Africa, and in Bangladesh.

SFD Thinking

The first SFD Thinking are Online Now

Explore the new SFD Thinking and discover interesting facts, ideas and approaches on how to use SFDs.

SFD Manual

دليل المخطط البياني لتدفق الفضلات البشرية

The SFD Manual was translated to Arabic and can be downloaded from the SuSanA Library!

SFD Manual

Manuel d’élaboration des SFD

The SFD Manual was translated and the French version can be discovered now!

What is an SFD?

An excreta flow diagram (also often described as shit flow diagram, SFD) is a tool to readily understand and communicate how excreta physically flows through a city or town.

The fate of excreta produced by populations across the globe is often poorly understood. SFDs show how it is or is not managed as it moves from defecation to disposal or end-use. The SFD report presents the service delivery context of the city or town and the data sources used for the assessment.

SFDs Worldwide

Discover the SFD reports, training events and presentations across the world.

Over 120 SFD reports are currently available. As sanitation practitioners and city officials recognize how effective SFDs are in engaging and stimulating dialogue on excreta management to achieve better sanitation, the number of SFDs being prepared all over the world is increasing.

Make your own SFD

The SFD Promotion Initiative has developed a methodology and tools to enable the easy production of standardized SFDs by city stakeholders, development agencies and non-governmental organizations.

The SFD Graphic Generator is a quick and simple tool that allows the production of SFD graphics in three steps. Once you have the data for your city, you can easily generate the SFD graphic and download the results for reports and publications.

Knowledge

Do you want to prepare an SFD? Check out the tutorial videos, FAQs and the SFD Manual.

The SFD Manual describes the process followed within the SFD Promotion Initiative for the production of SFD graphics and reports. It includes guidance on data collection and analysis on how to use the SFD Graphic Generator and the definitions of terms and variables.

Looking for something?

Discover the world of SFDs!

Consortium Partners

From 2014 – 2018 the SFD Promotion Initiative has been managed by GIZ under the umbrella of the Sustainable Sanitation Alliance (SuSanA), supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation through two grants (2014-2015 and 2016-2018). Phase III of the SFD Promotion Initiative is being managed by the University of Leeds and the Center for Science and Environment, supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation through two additional grants. The secretariat of the SFD Webportal and Helpdesk are remaining with GIZ as part of the SuSanA secretariat.

The Centre for Science and Environment (CSE); the Global Sector Program on Sustainable Sanitation of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ GmbH); commissioned by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Development and Cooperation (BMZ); the Department of Sanitation, Water and Solid Waste for Development (Sandec) at the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology (Eawag); the water@leeds research group of the University of Leeds (UofL); the Water, Engineering and Development Centre (WEDC) of Loughborough University and the World Bank Water Global Practice

How to make an SFD

Online Training

Resources