Installing urine collection systems in sub-Saharan city regions would make those conurbations more sustainable. Indeed, collecting urine incities could provide valuable fertilizer suitable for local agricultural use, and thus serve to make city region food systems more sustainable.

This was demonstrated by a study by four researchers from CIRAD, IRD, Boubakar Bâ University of Tillaberi (Niger) and Joseph Ki-Zerbo University, Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso), published on 3 May 2023 in the journal Regional Environmental Change. For their study, the researchers analysed nitrogen flows in waste in two sub-Saharan cities: Maradi (Niger) and Ouagadougou. The study was a first, and showed that urine was the main source of nitrogen losses.