Improved toilets
Better sanitation to reduce disease
In the slums of Zimbabwe, Sudan, Kenya and Nepal, Practical Action is working with some of the world’s poorest people to install effective toilets. The result is that life has been transformed for thousands of families. No more having to defecate in rivers or outside their homes. No more waste flowing into wells used for drinking water. No more faeces lying in the street where children play.
In each of these countries, we work with local communities to establish which kind of toilet is best for their needs and their environment:
In the slums of Zimbabwe, where the lack of sanitation has led to cholera outbreaks and where permanent structures are rarely allowed, poor communities have opted for the portable Ecosan toilet. It’s a dry toilet requiring no water to operate, and therefore ideal in slums where water is scarce and expensive.
In Sudan, a country that is sorely lacking in sanitary toilets, we are helping poor communities to build hundreds of Ventilated Improved Pit (VIP) latrines. Equipped with ventilation pipes to get rid of flies and smells, these have proven so effective that local people have taken the initiative and built many more.
In Nepal, the local community has been heavily involved in the choice of SULAV twin-pit latrines: an effective, easy-to-maintain toilet where the waste is sealed to remove pathogens before being composted and used as manure.
Low-cost technology for sanitation
A combination of improved ecosan toilets - which are cheap and sustainable - and hygiene education can help to reduce the incidence of disease in Epworth, a peri-urban settlement on the outskirts of Harare in Zimbabwe. This video shows the work of Practical Action's work on ecological sanitation, and how an ecosan toilet is constructed.
Read more about the Improving Access to Safe Sanitation project in Bellapaise, Epworth.
The VIP latrine
A very important tool in the fight against disease
A traditional pit latrine – a simple pit covered with a platform of logs and mud – is an acute health risk. It’s almost impossible to wash the platform and the mud breeds disease. The Ventilated Pit Latrine, however, has a concrete platform that’s easy to keep clean, plus a ventilation pipe that kills disease-carrying flies. So far, Practical Action has helped build 366 VIP latrines in Sudan’s Kassala State, bringing sanitary toilets to over 2,500 people. Inspired by this, local people have built many more using their own resources.
The SULAV latrine
Designed to remove the source of infection
In Butwal, one of the most poverty-stricken slums in Nepal, thousands of families are forced to defecate in the streets where they live. Local people, working with Practical Action, opted to build SULAV latrines: shelters built over two pits. When one pit is full, it’s closed and the other is used. After a year, the first pit can be safely emptied and the contents used as manure. So far, Practical Action has helped build SULAV toilets for 439 poor families in Butwal, bringing vital sanitation to more than 2,000 people.
Your help today could put the right toilet in the right place – and save lives. If you are able to, please make a donation to Practical Action's work today.
Related information
Improving Access to Safe Sanitation 
Safer solutions for Zimbabwe 
Toilets without water |
Improved sanitation in Kenyan slums 
Practical Answers |
