Community based ecological sanitation ( Image courtesy:Practioners Handbook)
Ecological sanitation is based on three fundamental principles: pre-venting pollution rather than attempting to control after we pollute; sanitizing the urine and the faeces; and using the safe products for agricultural purposes. This approach can be characterised as ‘sanitize-and-recycle’. Ecosan toilets and urinals, their operation and maintenance, their use in special conditions like disasters, their implementation, along with a few case studies are explained in the report.
The report is divided into the following chapters:
This introduces the various issues related to sanitation and its impact on health and the environment. It explains how ecological sanitation is an approach based on the principle of “minimum resource utilization and maximum resource recovery”, offering sound sanitation solutions in a framework of sustainable development.
How ecological sanitation is a more holisitic approach that views human waste as a resource is detailed here. Any sanitation system that sanitises waste and facilitates recovery of useful substances can be termed as an ecological sanitation system. This system renders human excreta safe, preventing pollution, and proposes to use the safe products of sanitized human excreta for agricultural purposes.
Green Urinal at IIT, Delhi ( Image courtesy: R Sakthivel)
A few cost effective and decentralised ecosanitation systems which can be employed in rural areas to treat human excreta are discussed:
This chapter deals with the ecosan toilets or urine diverting dry toilets that facilitate separation of urine, faeces and water used for anal cleansing (wash water) at the point of use. Urine and wash water are separated using specially designed toilet seats. These can be constructed in various designs based on factors such as climate, temperature, availability of space, convenience decomposition of faeces and features desired by the users. The design features together with the drawings are detailed in the report.
Ecosan community composting toilets ( Image courtesy: R Sakthivel)
The aspects related to planning, design considerations and various technological options for implementing these are discussed. These are further classified into sections such as data collection, site selection, appropriate design, user involvement and implementation.
These design principles and considerations are based on the requirement of users and local climatic conditions. The design considerations are grouped into sections such as anthropometric data, climatic conditions for various zones, suggested design parameters, wind and sunlight penetration for optimal disinfection and drying of toilet units. The technological aspects include standard designs developed for the promotion of ecosan toilets for households, anganwadis, schools and public complexes.
Waterless urinal public kiosk ( Image courtesy: R Sakthivel)
Waterless urinals do not consume water for flushing and are less expensive as they do not require plumbing accessories. Importantly, the dry operation of waterless urinals and touch free operations reduces significantly the spread of communicable diseases. The technical knowhow of constructing these WLU is explained in this section.
As these are new concepts, users of these facilities need to be educated on how to use and maintain them properly. Although these are robust technologies compared to other systems, following proper maintenance procedures is very important for their effective functioning.
This section deals disaster affected areas, where ensuring proper sanitation is very important for preventing disease outbreak. Sanitation systems need to be designed to withstand the impact of disaster situations. Some of the temporary measures in relief operations are:
Various methods of urine application to agricultural crops ( Image courtesy: Practioners Handbook)
This chapter deals with source separation of urine and faeces proposed through ecological sanitation concept, and aids in applying different set of treatments to make them safe for reuse in agriculture
Ecosan toilets are designed to process human faeces to a harmless state. The treatment to destroy pathogenic organisms present in human faeces is effected either within or outside the system. Broadly, the process of pathogen inactivation in ecological sanitation systems can be grouped into two categories
The revised TSC ( Total Sanitation Campaign) framework encourages promotion of ecological sanitation components that allow storage of human excreta and urine, for composting or converting to usable and safe manure or fertiliser. Though no special financial provisions are provided for ECOSAN facilities, however within the existing financial allocations earmarked for toilets, these can be promoted.
Pole bean crop grown using human urine and cattle urine ( Image courtesy: GKVK, Bangalore)
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