CHENNAI: The State Government plans to set up a model eco-friendly toilet in every village shortly.

Unlike conventional toilets, the eco-toilet does not dispose of urine and faecal matter, but uses them as valuable resources for recycling.

The Rural Development Department recently held a sensitisation programme for its district representatives and total sanitation coordinators. All 12,600 villages in the State will be introduced to the eco-toilet concept. "We will request panchayats to encourage at least one household in their villages to build the toilet," a senior official of the Rural Development Department said.

The eco-toilet is built above the ground with two chambers beneath the pan to collect faecal matter. Urine and wash water are diverted and let out into to a home garden. The two chambers collect faecal matter, over which ash is strewn to help dehydrate and deodorise it.

"Most people find it very hard to believe that eco-toilets don't smell... This is because the faeces is immediately covered with dry ash, soil or lime. This dry material helps dehydrate the faeces," Paul Calvert, who designed the toilet, explains in his book `Ecological solutions to flush toilet failures.' The pictorial work has also been translated into Tamil.

Urine and faeces are treated separately because of the volume produced. While a person produces 1.2 litres of urine per day, less than 200 ml of faeces is produced. Says Mr. Calvert, "If this amount of faecal matter is dehydrated, it is only about one matchbox full." Hence, the faecal matter chamber needs to be emptied only once a year or so, by which time it is reduced to powdery manure.

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