 latrines, if they use latrines at all.)
ACCEPTING THE CHALLENGE: According to UNICEF, 2.6 billion people, almost entirely in the developing world, use bucket, public or open (uncovered) latrines, if they use latrines at all.
Image: Courtesy of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
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Chances are that if you are reading this, you have a private flush toilet a few steps from your bed. Your commode is more reliable than your mobile connection, and likely will outlast all of your home appliances. Yet huge tracts of the developing world have yet to see so much as a latrine, a situation that facilitates the spread of debilitating or even deadly diarrheal diseases.
Advocates for universal access to and use of basic personal sanitation hope their efforts will get a big boost in August, when the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation present several hygienic innovations developed through its Reinventing the Toilet Challenge. Technology alone might help with failing sewers in industrialized countries, but for poor nations, where changing social norms is more important, the Gates Foundation is a powerful ally. The foundation's involvement could do for sanitation what it has accomplished in the battle to eradicate malaria—raise the visibility of a fundamental health care crisis and encourage new efforts to end it.
Toilet tech
According to the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), 2.6 billion people, almost entirely in the developing world, use bucket, public or open (uncovered) latrines—if they use latrines at all. Of that total, 1.1 billion people defecate in the open—a social norm in some societies, but one that results in typhoid, cholera, dysentery and other diseases.
One of the foundation's efforts in this fight was to spread $3 million in grants last summer among engineering teams at eight research institutions in North America, Asia, Africa and Europe, including the California Institute of Technology, South Africa's University of KwaZulu–Natal and National University of Singapore. The foundation approached about 20 institutions, eight of which took up the challenge. These teams were charged with developing concepts that: do not use piped-in water; are not connected to a sewer system; do not use outside electricity; and will not cost more than 5 cents per visitor per day to operate, including initial investment and ongoing maintenance.
Several prototypes have been proposed: A team at the Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands proposes using microwaves to turn human waste into carbon monoxide and hydrogen, which would be stored in solid-oxide fuel stacks to generate electricity. Teams at Loughborough University in England and Stanford University are working separately on methods that involve turning waste into charcoal, or biochar.
At the University of Toronto, researchers are building a system that sanitizes feces (dehydrated after running it between two rollers) by smoldering it. The system decontaminates urine via membrane filtration and ultraviolet radiation. Meanwhile, Caltech researchers have proposed a solar-powered toilet that generates hydrogen for fuel cells from the waste.
Frank Rijsberman, director of the Gates Foundation's Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Initiative, says he is hoping for something that goes beyond the minimum criteria to become the "iPad of sanitation." He says, "There must be an aspirational element" to toilets or even latrines if they are going to become the norm. People have to want to be seen owning one.
Sanitation marketing
This last point is more important than one might think. After all, what arguments for toilets could be more persuasive than hygiene and health? The numbers alone would seem capable of convincing any adult mind that open defecation is disastrous. For instance, the World Health Organization says 1.5 million children alone suffer miserable deaths each year from diarrhea, a common outcome of poor sanitation. It turns out, however, that getting people to climb the first rung of what is called the sanitation ladder to improved waste-disposal practices is a complex social endeavor.
For example, although some people, particularly women and girls who risk being assaulted while crouching alone at night in the open, might opt for latrines and toilets where available, others say they prefer the experience of open defecation. To them, it is a natural practice going back generations.
Nonprofits and government agencies trying to end open defecation historically have parachuted into villages armed with health statistics, subsidies and latrines. Those involved in the battle say such campaigns are viewed locally as, at best, irrelevant and, at worst, as condescending noblesse oblige. Return visits revealed that if the facilities were used at all, they became grain stores, animal pens or even kitchens.
Even the Gates Foundation, Rijsberman says, is putting more money into toilet technology than behavioral efforts, but it recognizes the limits of technology in changing social norms. He says the foundation has also issued grants for "sanitation marketing programs" in Indonesia, India and Tanzania, for example.
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12 Comments
Add CommentI saw composting toilets in Ecuador many years ago. Low tech and productive. Many years before that, my father was gardening with a fertilizer derived from the sewage treatment system of the city of Milwaukee. This is a problem with multiple old solutions that simply need to be implemented.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI'm surprised that composting toilets aren't being looked at as much as high-tech options. They fit the criteria and have a proven track record when used correctly. And they don't require big bucks to research.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI'm surprised they didn't mention the PeePoo bag made by Peepoople, a Swedish organization. Cheap and clean and simple.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thishttp://www.businessmodelinspiration.com/?p=127
I'm glad that this issue is being addressed seriously. The lack of awareness about basic sanitation is a serious problem in both rural and urban India.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWhat we need more than high-tech toilets (better mousetrap anyone?) is education and law enforcement. It isn't only the poor who defecate in our cities and villages.
Great article & links. There are many solutions from many organizations. Over educated individuals cannot look outside the boxes they have built yet they are the only ones getting grants? Look around at the world & college educated solutions? The corrupt individuals in government & banker wars are the source of the issues. Love in action is the answer as it promotes individuals to help those in need to grow in hope and actions. Women are raped looking for firewood attempting to stay alive as their families have been destroyed. In America, 1/2 the population is still on septic systems. America cities (90% of US population) are only 15 days away from similar issues if and when our grids go down from solar flares and no one can flush. The sewer systems are poorly designed (by college grads) so that if toilets do not flush the sewer systems will start to explode from methane gases. We invented a home source point sewer treatment process 20 years ago because Americans will be charged in the near future for every flush. WE also worked on a 20 million pig farm and solved the manure problems only to be stopped by "drug" company anti biotic over use. The Gates foundation follows in the questionable footsteps of Mr. Gates father, Rockefeller and the UN. Globally the germ theory and treatment is not doing very well as Louis Pasteur said on his death bed Antoine Bechamp was correct, it is the personal terrain that allows & spreads disease. Since I feel Gates is out in left field concerning facts and he has never ending funds, we will have to sit back and watch the smart people figure out a way to make money and rid the earth of un desirables pooping, or not? Thanks again for all the great information. Gi Green Guru, global consultants.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisSeems like the culture of maleness once against trumps the needs of women AND the dictates of common sense. The article states that "While women and girls would prefer indoor toilets, 'others' prefer open defecation". Others? Why not say "men and boys"? That's all that's left.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAnd so ... like many other problems in the developing world ("dry sex", too many children, AIDS) and the developed one as well (warfare, prostitution, child sexual abuse) is primarily males who cause this problem.
To be fair, it is also primarily males (listening to feminine voices, I would argue) who fix most of the problems in the world. So let them get started on this one!
As others have said, there is no need for a new solution, it already exists, with the composting toilet. Here is one that looks really cheap and easy:
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thishttp://youtu.be/3V5f5tFtJMM
First let me say that my first six years were on an isolated farm with a primitive outdoor toilet, probably built by my father and in much better shape than the one pictured. The rule was to sprinkle wood ashes on deposits to control the flies. I didn't hear that there was ever a problem with it (except getting to it in wintertime), but I think there are much better ways to do it today.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisOF COURSE USE COMPOST TOILETS, but maybe of the design below, and of course use the product for fertilizer.
I once made garbage can from a plastic paint bucket with a 'check valve' made of a plastic grocery bag that would let garbage in but not flies, and no smell out. It worked so well that I let it get almost full, and turned to liquid, till it was hard to empty. This, with an open bottom, should also work for a commode, with the additions below.
My ideal is that underneath the commode (for all kinds of organic waste) would be the upper end of a sloping metal tube (made of large culvert pipe or two or three oil drums welded end to end) on rollers, with door that swings open (inward) when that side of the tube is turned up. Rotate the drum once a day, or so, perhaps by a crank on one of the rollers, in the direction that will cause the input door to swing closed as it rolls. Rolling mixes the waste and moves it slowly toward the lower end, hopefully at a speed that allows for complete digestion. Have the output from the tube go through another "check valve system. Build a funnel-shaped screen around the lower end of the tube that will let flies go in but not out, helping with digestion and adding to the compost. There are probably a lot more details, but I think it may be practical. Write to danrob (at) efn if you need more help or ideas.
Or use something like the Loveable Loo (in the link from comment 7). A bit more work (once or twice a week) but it can be placed anywhere (inside or outside a home) and apparently doesn't smell. You need a reasonable supply of carbon based material to cover the faeces and urine but I can't see that being too much of a problem.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI guess then, as the article vaguely suggests, the technology is not the only key issue here but changing the 'hearts and minds' of the 2+ billion who just don't know any better yet.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisEducation, the ultimate technology.
There are composting toilets which are successful in developing countries.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisComposting toilets are toilets systems, which allow to minimise water use and to recycle nutrients contained in excreta and faeces. There are various different systems (i.e. pits or vaults; urine diversion or not; low-tech and high-tech; single-vault continuous or multiple vault batch).
Composting toilets are suitable for both industrialised and developing countries, especially in arid regions and regions without piped water for sewers. Composting toilets can be constructed at the household level, or they can be built in cluster for institutions, schools, hostels and so on. However, open access community compost toilets are not re.Composting toilets can be built beside or as part of a house in rural, urban or peri-urban areas and can even be established inside a house or apartment .In several projects, composting toilets have also been successfully implemented in houses with several floors with the collecting chamber being situated in the basement . Composting toilets are generally sealed systems; therefore they are also adapted to areas prone to flooding or high water table .Composting toilets are slightly more expensive than urine diversion dehydration toilets in terms of excreta management because of the need for the control of the C/N ration ,but the nutrients contained in the compost from composting toilets are more readily available than those from dehydration toilets .
Advantages
• Operate reliably during dry (no water required) and wet seasons (in comparison to dehydration toilets)
• Can reduce the volume of the faecal matter considerably (up to 30 %,)
• Can reduce the volume of solid waste, as organic waste can be added to the toilet
• No need to dig pits (in the case of vault composting toilet) or to install sewers
• Urine can be collected separately
• End product (humanure) is a valuable soil amendment
• Low-cost and high-cost versions are available
• Can be built and repaired with locally available material, If leachate is controlled, composting toilets can also be constructed where the groundwater table is high or on bedrocks.
Dr.A.Jagadeesh Nellore (AP),India
E-mail: anumakonda.jagadeesh@gmail.com
Estamos ad-portas de un cambio de paradigma. Debemos de dejar de ver a las excretas humanas como residuos y verlas como un recurso. La orina es una gran fuente de fósforo y un excelente biofertilizante natural a través de un sencillo proceso. Posee un buen equilibrio entre nitrógeno, fosforo y potasio. La excreta a través de un proceso de compostaje, que asegure la muerte de los patógenos, puede ser un excelente reestructurador de suelos. Las tecnologías actuales utilizan el agua potable solo como medio de transporte de las excretas de un lugar a otro. Debemos de dejar de verter las excretas humanas a los ecosistemas acuáticos para incorporarlas a los ecosistemas terrestres. Quizás debamos mirar como lo hacen otras especies…
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