A prodigious concept to know about. During field visit got chance to know about EcoSan. A unique system of sustainable sanitation. It is named as Ecological Sanitation and commonly known as EcoSan. It is the concept of hoop system in which human excreta is converted into nutrients. The nutrients are then returned to the soil.
It is a water less dry flush toilet. There are 3 pits in the commode (refer the below image). First one is for urine, second one for excreta and the last one is for cleaning. The purpose is to store excreta in big pit to make manure and urine in a plastic can to make pesticide and fertilizer. When the excreta pit is full, that commode is kept closed for 6 months for converting it into manure. meanwhile the other commode is used. This practice is done in every 6 months. When the urine can gets full, it is changed with another empty can. The full can is kept closed for 1 month so that the smell goes out and becomes pesticide. Benefits include:
- Economic benefits: the cost of manure is saved, and it increases the quality and quantity of agricultural produce.
- Reduction in diseases and it also saves the charges of the doctor and medicines.
- Easy use for all members of the family.
- Affordable water free toilet with very nominal monthly maintenance.
Challenges:
- If there is no sweeper available nearby then who and how the manure will be collected from pit?
- People still likes to defecate in open.
I met families who are using this very well and living better lives now. But the number is larger of the families who are not using it. They know the benefits but their habit or the comfort of going in the open is a challenge for its usage. Its usage is very important for the hygiene and better living standards of people. The organisation can construct and guide them about how to use these toilets but it is difficult to follow up with families for its usage. Especially those families that defecate in the open space.
For more refer https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecological_sanitation
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