Ecosan: The magic wand for human waste disposal
HE lifts his tall lean body, a testimony of the many years spent toiling to survive on the outskirts of Kampala City.
By Gerald Tenywa
HE lifts his tall lean body, a testimony of the many years spent toiling to survive on the outskirts of Kampala City.
He typifies the pain and suffering of the urban poor who eke a living from petty trade and find cheap accommodation in Kampala’s sprawling slums.
“It is easier to get food than find safe drinking water because much of it has been contaminated with filth,†says Andrew Okello of Bwaise, as we settled down on two stools near his crumbling makeshift shelter.
His children chuckle and play nearby, oblivious to the dangers of waterborne diseases like cholera that spreads through the entire slum when heavy rains pound the area. They play and tactfully dodge the small streams carrying faeces that are released when the slum is waterlogged.
Across the stream, school children defy the swarms of flies taking off and landing like helicopters on food being sold by vendors. This further exposes the population to a higher risk of being hit by cholera since flies that transmit cholera germs breed freely on the abundant waterlogged areas.
Okello, like many of the other slum dwellers, does not know that their situation would improve if they take up a new technology described by scientists as a magic wand to deal with human waste disposal.
Nearby, a Makerere University researcher, James Kakooza assisted by the African Technology Policy Studies Network (ATPS), has been doing research on the ecological sanitation toilet. He says this technology is user-friendly.
Unlike most common toilets, the eco toilet neither smells nor attracts the dreaded flies, which carry disease-causing germs.
He refers to pit latrines as “drop and keepâ€, common in Kampala and flush toilets as “drop and flushâ€.
“It is a known fact that flush toilets use a lot of water, but the ecosan does not use any water,†says Kakooza.
He explains that the use of the ecosan separates the solid human waste from urine, which can be raw materials for biogas or fertilisers.
“After the separation, the excreta is processed locally on-site, until it is free of germs.â€
Because of its advantages, Kampala City Council (KCC) adopted the new technology to help local people achieve the Millennium Development Goals, which among others, targets access to safe water and better sanitation.
Uganda’s target is to increase the access to safe and clean water from the present 60% in urban areas, to 100% by 2015.
Currently, less than 10% of the two million people in Kampala, is served by the public sewer system run by the National Water and Sewerage Corporation. As a result, more than 800,000 people in the urban slums are facing deplorable water and environmental problems.
“With the increasing population density in the slums and the swampy nature of Kampala, use of pit latrines and flush toilets alone cannot provide slum dwellers with a clean and hygienic environment,†says Kakooza. “Dry (ecosan) toilets are, therefore, a viable option.â€
Unfortunately, socio-economic issues and attitudes of the intended users, are barriers to promoting the use of ecosan toilets, says Kakooza. “People think dealing with human excreta is backward and that is why the ecosan is not popular.â€
In his 11-page report on ecosans, Kakooza quotes one youth saying he was cautioned by his father: “If you fail to study enough you will end up working in toilets handling human excreta.â€
To make matters worse, the concept of urban agriculture, which would help the users of ecosan to benefit from the fertilisers is not well-developed.
“Urban laws prohibit the movement and use of urine and faeces for fear of spreading diseases,†says Kakooza.
He agrees that more research should be carried out on the use of organic fertilisers from human excreta.
He hopes that with more research on the ecosan and creation of awareness, the new technology is likely to become more popular.
Prof. Obua of Makerere University, sees ecosans as a solution which slum dwellers should take up. They have small plots of land, inadequate for building pit latrines.
He also points out that the slums are planned without roads, making it almost impossible to access some houses.
Besides, he says: “From a legal point of view, they are not recognised as dwelling places. That is why they are not given attention and they only come into the limelight when there is a cholera outbreak.â€
He says poverty in the slums restricts access to water and that 20 litres of water goes for sh50, but this notches up to sh500 when there is a breakdown in water supply.
How can poor people afford building of ecosan?
Kakooza says building an ecosan has reduced from sh5m to about sh2m for households. “The cost of building ecosans has gone down because there is increased use of local raw materials,†he says.
He also argues that the ecosan has a lifespan of over a decade, as opposed to pit latrines that get full in a few years.
A policy maker in Uganda further argues that initiatives in the slums are also subsidised to help the disadvantaged population access public services.
Kakooza thinks that the ecosans could work in Uganda because they have been taken up in other countries like Malawi and Zambia.
However, according to the researcher, the urban poor (people living in slums) in Uganda feel it is not easy to manage ecosans at community level when the handling of excreta remains culturally unacceptable. He insists that “the acceptability of the ecosans is an important issue, which we should address.’’
Short of this, Okello and thousands of people in the slums will continue mining water from filth.
HE lifts his tall lean body, a testimony of the many years spent toiling to survive on the outskirts of Kampala City.
He typifies the pain and suffering of the urban poor who eke a living from petty trade and find cheap accommodation in Kampala’s sprawling slums.
“It is easier to get food than find safe drinking water because much of it has been contaminated with filth,†says Andrew Okello of Bwaise, as we settled down on two stools near his crumbling makeshift shelter.
His children chuckle and play nearby, oblivious to the dangers of waterborne diseases like cholera that spreads through the entire slum when heavy rains pound the area. They play and tactfully dodge the small streams carrying faeces that are released when the slum is waterlogged.
Across the stream, school children defy the swarms of flies taking off and landing like helicopters on food being sold by vendors. This further exposes the population to a higher risk of being hit by cholera since flies that transmit cholera germs breed freely on the abundant waterlogged areas.
Okello, like many of the other slum dwellers, does not know that their situation would improve if they take up a new technology described by scientists as a magic wand to deal with human waste disposal.
Nearby, a Makerere University researcher, James Kakooza assisted by the African Technology Policy Studies Network (ATPS), has been doing research on the ecological sanitation toilet. He says this technology is user-friendly.
Unlike most common toilets, the eco toilet neither smells nor attracts the dreaded flies, which carry disease-causing germs.
He refers to pit latrines as “drop and keepâ€, common in Kampala and flush toilets as “drop and flushâ€.
“It is a known fact that flush toilets use a lot of water, but the ecosan does not use any water,†says Kakooza.
He explains that the use of the ecosan separates the solid human waste from urine, which can be raw materials for biogas or fertilisers.
“After the separation, the excreta is processed locally on-site, until it is free of germs.â€
Because of its advantages, Kampala City Council (KCC) adopted the new technology to help local people achieve the Millennium Development Goals, which among others, targets access to safe water and better sanitation.
Uganda’s target is to increase the access to safe and clean water from the present 60% in urban areas, to 100% by 2015.
Currently, less than 10% of the two million people in Kampala, is served by the public sewer system run by the National Water and Sewerage Corporation. As a result, more than 800,000 people in the urban slums are facing deplorable water and environmental problems.
“With the increasing population density in the slums and the swampy nature of Kampala, use of pit latrines and flush toilets alone cannot provide slum dwellers with a clean and hygienic environment,†says Kakooza. “Dry (ecosan) toilets are, therefore, a viable option.â€
Unfortunately, socio-economic issues and attitudes of the intended users, are barriers to promoting the use of ecosan toilets, says Kakooza. “People think dealing with human excreta is backward and that is why the ecosan is not popular.â€
In his 11-page report on ecosans, Kakooza quotes one youth saying he was cautioned by his father: “If you fail to study enough you will end up working in toilets handling human excreta.â€
To make matters worse, the concept of urban agriculture, which would help the users of ecosan to benefit from the fertilisers is not well-developed.
“Urban laws prohibit the movement and use of urine and faeces for fear of spreading diseases,†says Kakooza.
He agrees that more research should be carried out on the use of organic fertilisers from human excreta.
He hopes that with more research on the ecosan and creation of awareness, the new technology is likely to become more popular.
Prof. Obua of Makerere University, sees ecosans as a solution which slum dwellers should take up. They have small plots of land, inadequate for building pit latrines.
He also points out that the slums are planned without roads, making it almost impossible to access some houses.
Besides, he says: “From a legal point of view, they are not recognised as dwelling places. That is why they are not given attention and they only come into the limelight when there is a cholera outbreak.â€
He says poverty in the slums restricts access to water and that 20 litres of water goes for sh50, but this notches up to sh500 when there is a breakdown in water supply.
How can poor people afford building of ecosan?
Kakooza says building an ecosan has reduced from sh5m to about sh2m for households. “The cost of building ecosans has gone down because there is increased use of local raw materials,†he says.
He also argues that the ecosan has a lifespan of over a decade, as opposed to pit latrines that get full in a few years.
A policy maker in Uganda further argues that initiatives in the slums are also subsidised to help the disadvantaged population access public services.
Kakooza thinks that the ecosans could work in Uganda because they have been taken up in other countries like Malawi and Zambia.
However, according to the researcher, the urban poor (people living in slums) in Uganda feel it is not easy to manage ecosans at community level when the handling of excreta remains culturally unacceptable. He insists that “the acceptability of the ecosans is an important issue, which we should address.’’
Short of this, Okello and thousands of people in the slums will continue mining water from filth.