Low cost toilet promotion
Nepal, KaskiApril 16th, 2012
Binaya Raj Shrestha
Binaya is a civil engineer and working at Practical Action since 2006. Currently, I’m the Project Manager of SWASHTHA (Strengthening Water, Air, Sanitation and Hygiene Treasuring Health) project.
Posts by Binaya Raj
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Still more than 50 per cent of people in Nepal defecate in the open.
When asked why they hadn’t built a toilet, people blamed financial constraints.
That is because people think only about costly cemented toilet blocks – even though their houses are built using straw, timber and mud. People think they need a corrugated galvanized iron roof for a toilet, even though they are living under hay roofs. They are not aware of low cost options for toilets.
Normally, the cost of simple toilet up to pan level or sub structure is around NPR 3,000 (£23). Actually, the part which increases toilet cost, discouraging poor people towards building toilet, is types of costly structures. That is why when working with communities to improve sanitation, Practical Action promote a ’7 B’ approach while constructing low cost toilets. 7 B stands for the 7 different toilet structures that can be built with locally available materials:
Bamboo
Bag (Jute or plastic bags)
Bush (Hay)
Bricks
Boulders (stone masonry)
Blocks
Blend (mixture of two or more materials)
The core concept of reducing the cost is the use of locally available resources, including material and human resource. It also ensures ownership, sustainability and easy promotion. The other main concept is to ensure people get into the habit of using the toilet. Improving the condition of toilet then comes in the second phase.
Among the 7B options, normally bricks, blocks and boulders are more expensive. However, it is not always true. First class brick is not required for building toilets; it can be built with second class or even built with brick bats. Blocks with higher cement sand ratio can be used for making toilets cheaper. Also, if boulders are locally available, it can also be a cheaper option.
You can find more information about the work we do in Nepal here and on water and sanitation here.
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Ecological sanitation for sustainable sanitation
Chitwan National Park, Bharatpur 110 085, Nepal, Bharatpur
February 4th, 20122.6 billion people in the world do not have access to improved sanitation facilities. Most of them are from South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa.
In the race of accessing the facilities, a lot of pit latrines or improved pit latrine have been constructed behind they are cheaper ,thus easy to promote in low income areas. However, there remains a high potential risk of contaminating the ground water which is source of drinking water for millions.
Practical Action Nepal is therefore promoting ecological sanitation (ECOSAN) toilets in its EC supported project, Strengthening Water, Air, Sanitation and Hygiene Treasuring Health (SWASHTHA). The project is taking place in 21 communities targeting urban poor of four municipalities (Bharatpur, Butwal, Gulariya and Tikapur) in Nepal. The primary objectives of promoting ECOSAN toilets are:
1. Reducing the health risks related to sanitation, contaminated water and waste
2. Improving the quality of surface and groundwater
3. Improving soil fertility
4. Optimising the management of nutrients and water resources
The collection system of ECOSAN toilet is different with the other conventional and modern flush cistern toilet. In this toilet, faeces and urine is collected separately.
Ecosan toilet with different collection areas for urine and faeces
Urine collection tank
Nutrients in the urine are easily assimilated by plants and vegetables. However, the urine is diluted by adding water so it doesn’t burn the vegetation.
Using diluted urine to provide nutrients to crops
Similarly, faeces contains nutrients but there is a high risk of the presence of pathogens. Therefore, faeces can not be used directly as urine. Elimination of harmful pathogens in the faeces can be achieved by dehydration. That is why the importance of diverting the urine is dominant here. The entire process of dehydration of faeces takes about six months to one year. Then it can be used as compost.
It was believed traditionally that faeces has more nutrient value. However, the analysis of urine and faeces reveals that urine has significantly more nutrients than faeces. Urine is rich in nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium and can be used in agriculture as well as horticulture. The amount of urine collected from one person during one day is sufficient to fertilize one square metre of land. Urine collected from 30 persons for one year is sufficient to fertilize one hectare of land.
Description Unit Urine Faeces Volume Litre per person per day 1.4 0.15 Nitrogen Gram per person per day 11 1.5 Phosphorus Gram per person per day 1 0.5 Volume Litre per person per year 500 56 Advantages of ECOSAN:
1.It requires less water than in the flush cistern toilet, where flushing is necessary after each urination and defecation.
2.It does not contribute to pollution. Both urine and human faeces are collected safely. It pollutes neither surface water nor ground water.
3.Separately collected urine and human faeces can be used as natural fertilizer. These natural fertilizers can be easily assimilated by the plants.
4.Improvement of health due to safe and hygienic sanitation.
There are a few limitations in promoting ECOSAN, however:
1.Users need to be aware how to use ECOSAN toilets. Faeces needs to be kept dry as far as possible.
2.People have to handle faeces. Therefore, people need to be educated that faeces is not waste but is a useful resource. Further, people need to be aware of using the compost of faeces and the proper use of urine.
3.The faeces compost needs to be handled carefully for health reasons.
4.There is a cultural barrier in terms of handling human waste
Material cost of an ECOSAN Toilet up to plinth level or pan level is about 8000 rupees (£64). The structure of the toilet can be built with locally available materials like bamboo, wood, boulders, mud etc.
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Globally, a significant proportion of disease is due to unsafe drinking water. This accumulates further in absence of better sanitation and hygiene.
In 2008, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported that almost one tenth of the global disease burden could be prevented by improving water supply, sanitation, hygiene and management of water resources. The same report said that 10.6 per cent of deaths in Nepal are WSH (water, sanitation and hygiene) related. It also reported that 14,700 people die each year due to preventable diarrhoeal disease.
Although the Department of Water Supply and Sewerage claimed that 80 per cent of total households in Nepal have access to improved drinking water (DWSS 2010), water quality is a major challenge. As more than 50 per cent of the population defecate in open spaces, drinking water contamination is a common issue.
Water is a major medium for faecal oral transmission, causing millions of deaths globally and thousands in Nepal.
A water safety plan is a tool that ensures the delivery of safe drinking water from its catchments to consumers (“in Nepali Mul Dekhi Mukh samma”).
Water Safety Plans (WSPs) has been taken as a new concept and tool for managing risk in assuring water quality in water systems from source to the consumers. WSPs offer the most cost-effective and protective means of consistently assuring a supply of safe drinking water. WSPs operate through ‘catchment to consumers’ risk management approaches based on sound science and supported by appropriate monitoring. It can be applied across a wide range of situations from household solutions to community water supply schemes to large water supply utilities. WSPs identify the possible hazards in a water supply system with the level of risk, how it can be controlled and the actions required for hazard control.
For further information on our work in Nepal on safe water, sanitation and hygiene, go to http://practicalaction.org/region_nepal_healthy_homes
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