Let’s start with a quick introduction – who are you, and what’s your connection to the sanitation sector?

I’m Juliet Willetts based in Sydney and my work for the past 25 years has mainly focused on Asia and the Pacific. My background is in environmental engineering, and I work at the Institute for Sustainable Futures, which looks at sustainability more broadly and has a strong focus on international development and sanitation. I’ve always travelled a lot, even from a young age, so I tend to see myself as a global citizen rather than identifying with just one country. That global perspective has really shaped my long-term involvement in the sanitation sector.

What originally brought you into this field? Was there a key moment or motivation?  What keeps you passionate and motivated to work in this sector?

I began my career working on what I often call the “dirty side” of water during my PhD, focusing on industrial and textile wastewater. From there, my work expanded to include both water and sanitation, but sanitation quickly became a particular passion of mine. It’s such a critical issue, yet so often neglected.

What really motivated me were the experiences of spending time in urban and rural communities where sanitation conditions were extremely poor. Seeing those realities firsthand made it clear to me that this is simply not how people should be living. Poor sanitation isn’t just unhealthy for people, it’s damaging for the environment too, and that sense of injustice has been a strong driver for me.

Some of my earliest and most formative experiences were in India. I first visited as a child and was deeply impacted by seeing informal settlements and the conditions many people were living in. Later, my first volunteer work was in a Dalit village, where I was involved in education projects, including helping to build a school for a community that had been denied access to education, and later working on school curriculum on health promotion, including environmental health. Those early experiences shaped my perspective, and over time I’ve seen similar challenges across different countries in Asia and the Pacific, reinforcing my commitment to work in sanitation.

In your view, how can we break the taboo around toilets and sanitation – and why does that matter?

Personally, I’ve never felt that sanitation was something I couldn’t talk about in the spaces I work in. For me, the key is focusing on the outcomes rather than the discomfort people sometimes associate with the topic. When the conversation is framed around clean waterways, protecting public health, and creating healthier environments, those goals are not taboo at all but rather things most people naturally agree are important.

By shifting the focus to these positive outcomes, it becomes easier to talk about sanitation without it being seen as something “yucky” or uncomfortable. It helps move the conversation away from embarrassment and towards shared values and collective benefits. That framing makes discussions more acceptable and constructive, and in my experience, it’s been an effective way to engage people without sanitation ever feeling like an untouchable topic.

What’s one widespread myth or misconception about sanitation you’d love to change?

One of the biggest misconceptions is that systems like septic tanks actually treat waste. In reality, they mainly contain it, so pathogens can still be released in the liquid that leaves the system into the ground or unfortunately (wrongly) into waterways. There are also common misunderstandings around technical solutions, such as the idea that we can solve sanitation challenges entirely through nature-based solutions. These approaches are incredibly important and should be integrated wherever possible, but in dense urban areas they can’t replace the need for more intensive treatment and ‘grey’ infrastructure, we need a combination.

Another misconception relates to language and framing. Historically, sanitation was closely linked to public health, it was even referred to as sanitary engineering, with a clear focus on preventing disease and protecting people. Over time, that connection has weakened, with engineers focused more on organic removal than pathogens and where they end up. Today, sanitation is often discussed either from an engineering perspective or a health perspective, but rarely both together. Engineers may focus on environmental or economic indicators, while health professionals look at human exposure and risk, without always understanding how the systems themselves work.

I’d really like to see us rebuild that bridge between public health and engineering. Sanitation sits right at that intersection, and reconnecting those perspectives is essential if we’re going to design systems that truly protect both people and the environment.

What would it take to get more people – especially young professionals – excited about sanitation work?

From my experience, people often become excited about sanitation once they’re really exposed to the scale and complexity of the challenges. In our international development team, most people work across both water and sanitation, and I’ve seen colleagues shift their focus over time as they realise where the greatest needs are. One colleague, who originally worked in rural water supply, recently told me that after working on projects looking at pathogen flows, groundwater and surface water contamination, and behaviour change, he now feels that urban sanitation is where his efforts can make the biggest impact.

Sanitation is also an incredibly rich and interesting field to work in. It’s technically complex, drawing on chemistry, microbiology and engineering, but it also involves social and behavioural dimensions, which makes it more challenging and interdisciplinary than many people initially expect. That complexity opens up a wide range of research and career pathways.

Most importantly, the need is enormous. When people see that their work can directly contribute to better health, cleaner environments and more equitable living conditions, it creates a strong sense of purpose. And I think that sense of purpose is what really motivates people, especially young professionals, to commit their energy and careers to sanitation work.

Looking ahead: What’s your hope for the sanitation sector in the next 10 years?

There are two main things I hope to see. The first is more technological innovation, not necessarily breakthrough science at the extreme end, but practical innovation that helps existing solutions become mainstream. We already have options like composting toilets and alternative treatment systems; what’s needed now is innovation that improves their performance, usability and acceptance so they can be adopted at scale.

The second area is innovation around scale. At the moment, sanitation systems tend to sit at two extremes: fully centralised sewerage systems on one end, and individual household solutions on the other. The space in between, so systems serving clusters of 50, 100 or 200 or even 500 households has huge potential. Developing effective treatment, reuse and recycling approaches at these intermediate scales, supported by the right institutional arrangements and professional management, could be transformative. Advances like remote monitoring and control also make it possible to manage systems differently than we could in the past.

Beyond technology and systems, though, the biggest shift I hope for is stronger political prioritisation of sanitation. Ultimately, progress depends on people, on their behaviour, values and willingness to invest in something as fundamental as safely managing our waste. If sanitation becomes a true political priority, it will unlock many of the changes the sector needs.

Last, but not least: Can you describe your dream toilet or sanitation system?

My dream sanitation system wouldn’t rely on water. I think water is at the root of many of the problems we see in sanitation today. That said, it would still need to give people the same sense of cleanliness and comfort that a flush toilet provides. From a user’s perspective, things like odour control and the feeling that waste is safely “gone” really matter, and any new system has to deliver on that experience.

Beyond the user experience, the system would be designed for recovery and reuse. Ideally, we’d be capturing nutrients for agriculture rather than mining finite resources like phosphorus, while also preventing pollution of groundwater, rivers and lakes. Reuse is a central part of that vision.

A key element would be smart source separation. Right now, we mix human waste with all sorts of other substances, including pharmaceuticals, which makes recovery much more difficult. Drawing on principles from cleaner production, the dream system would do as much separation as possible upstream, making it easier to recover valuable resources and safely manage harmful components. At home we’ve had a urine separating toilet that I acquired after our Institute ran a trial at the university back in 2005 – it works great, and our fruit trees flourish from its application. Ultimately, it would be a highly efficient system that treats waste not as something to dispose of, but as a resource to be carefully and intelligently managed.

Ultimately, my dream is not just about the technology, but about how we as humans manage our waste to protect ourselves and the environment as an interconnected whole, placing value on an under-prioritised issue that currently adversely impacts way too many people in low resource settings.