The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Tiruchi News : `Ecosan toilet ideal alternative'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Jul 02, 2005

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Tiruchi

`Ecosan toilet ideal alternative'

Staff Reporter

ADDRESSING MODERN NEEDS: S. Amutha (extreme right), Project Coordinator, UNICEF, demonstrates how an Ecosan toilet works. T. Stenstrom (extreme left) from Swedish Institute of Infectious Disease Control, Sumita Ganguli, Project Coordinator, UNICEF, N ew Delhi and Jan Olof Drangert from Lingoping University, Sweden, look on. — PHOTO: R. M. RAJARATHINAM.

TIRUCHI: : Ecosan toilets serve as an effective alternative to the commonly used flush toilets, especially in water-scarce areas, the Project Coordinator of the United Nations Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF), New Delhi, Sumitha, said here on Friday.

Addressing mediapersons, she said the cost-effective Ecosan toilet units were being constructed in a large number in developing countries such as China, Africa and South America, where conservation of water was becoming increasingly necessary. Large quantities of water were being flushed out each day through the conventional toilets, while the Ecosan toilets minimised the water consumption up to 60 per cent. The sewage contaminated water bodies, causing severe health ailments. As the toilets had compost chambers to convert human excreta into bio-fertiliser, they were also environment-friendly, Ms. Sumita said.

The viability of the Ecosan toilets was being explored in Andhra, Karnataka, Bihar, Jharkand, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra. The UNICEF would give training and conduct capacity-building programmes for masons and construction labourers in villages, where at least 25 to 30 models would be constructed, she said. The UNICEF and the Stockholm Environmental Institute would be instrumental in mobilising community interaction in the villages and would monitor the activities.

Representatives of governmental and non-governmental agencies from nine States participated in a five-day workshop, conducted by the UNICEF and the Swedish Environmental Institute, and were exploring the possibility of Ecosan toilets in their States.

The delegates were taken to Kaliyapalayam and Sevanthilingapuram near Tiruchi, where the project was being executed by the Society for Community Organisation and People's Education (SCOPE), an NGO.

T.A. Stenstrom from the Swedish Institute of Infectious Disease Control said the Ecosan toilets were the scientific and environment-friendly means of disposing of human waste. Jan Olof Drangert, a faculty at Linkpong University of Sweden, said that ecology, sanitation, water, hygiene and agriculture were inter-linked and at a time when chemical fertilisers were polluting water bodies, the bio-fertilisers produced from the Ecosan toilets provided a good alternative. The Project Coordinator of School Sanitation, P. Amutha, demonstrated the functioning of the Ecosan toilets.

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