The four issues addressed by resource management sanitation (microbial risks and environmental degradation, water scarcity, malnutrition, and wasting of financial resources) lay down the tasks of Ecosan schemes:

Excreta must be handled safely and also chemical contaminants from domestic wastewater must be contained in compartments as small as possible (again: "dilution is no solution"), water scarcity has to be overcome by reusing the reclaimed part of domestic wastewater related to the water cycle (i.e. greywater), nutrients from human excreta should be recycled for increasing agricultural yields, and saving money (not only by avoiding high investment for sewers, but also needing less synthetic fertilizers because of utilizing nutrients from human excreta).