Dry Compost Toilet: India’s Solution to Meet Millennium Development Goal

To meet the target set by United Nation’s Millennium Development Goal to halve the number of people without sanitation by 2015, India will have to build at least half of 115 million toilets to cover half of 78 per cent of its rural population and 24 per cent of its urban population within that period.

Typical sanitation with septic tank or a pit latrine tends to pollute ground water and harm the environment. Underground sewerage systems with treatment facilities are difficult to provide and are costly ventures, apart from being energy consuming. In villages and outlying areas with a high water table, and in hard rock areas, technically appropriate solutions are either not available or are costly to implement.

An ideal solution

In such situations a dry composting toilet is an ideal solution as it collects human waste and converts it to a fertilizer resource for plant growth without polluting water bodies or groundwater.

In the dry compost toilet urine is collected in a plastic barrel and after dilution with water in proportions of 1 to 3 or 1 to 8 can be used as fertilizer with high nitrogen content for plants, especially trees. The faeces are collected in a tin box and allowed to compost for 3 weeks and then transferred for further composting to either a large composting drum or to an earthen pit. In 3 to 6 months it composts very well and can be used as a soil nutrient.

Double-storied toilets in Ladakh

A classic instance can be seen in Ladakh where there are double-storied toilets, with the composting unit underneath. The floor of the toilet is liberally covered with sawdust and straw. The waste is dropped from a hole into the composting unit. Every day, the straw and sawdust are swept into the composting unit through the hole, and a fresh layer is added. After a year, the contents of the compost pit are spread across the fields.

 

This hygienic and functional toilet can be constructed even in areas with high water tables, hard rock below the ground or any other conditions which would make construction of regular toilets impossible. Rooftop rainwater harvesting in a 200 litre drum can meet all the water requirement of washing in the toilet.

Watch a video on the composting toilets solution for the rural poor of the world.

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