The scenes are shocking and the statistics are overwhelming: 700 million people in India defecate in the open, there are 120 million ‘no toilet’ households and 10 million bucket privies rely on ‘scavengers’ who have the demeaning task of removing excreta by hand. How can these scenes be changed for the better? A report from Sulabh International Social Service Organisation, explains how technology is being used to meet the challenge and bring about social change.

Sulabh was founded with the two aims of improving the available sanitation technology and consequently the lives of scavengers. This led to the creation of two sanitation solutions: the twin pit pour-flush toilet for individual households, as an alternative to costly sewerage and septic tanks, and public toilets with biogas plants attached.

With the twin pit system, the second pit is used once the first pit is filled. By the time the second pit is filled, the excreta in the first pit has been converted to fertilizer. The community toilets are linked to biogas plants and with the use of treatment and composting devices developed by Sulabh, can produce fuel for cooking and lighting purposes and nutrient rich waste products for fertilizing.

Key benefits of the two systems include:

• The twin pit system is affordable, requires little space and its built-in on-site disposal facility means that wherever installed it has led to the elimination of scavenging. Surface and subsoil pollution is eliminated and it requires only a seventh of the water needed in conventional flushing systems.
• The water discharged from the community biogas plant toilet is nutrient rich and the Sulabh Effluent Treatment device renders it colourless, odourless, pathogen free and fit for discharge in town water bodies.
• Community toilets are run on a ‘pay and use’ basis and any money left after maintenance costs is used for welfare activities such as running elementary and health education programmes.

To date, Sulabh has prompted the construction of more than one million new or replacement units in houses and 5 500 pay-and-use public toilets. As a result, more than 10 million people have been provided with improved, low-cost sanitation facilities and 50 000 employment opportunities have been created in a commercially viable enterprise. While some of the people who previously worked as scavengers have become involved in the scheme, a school run by Sulabh is raising the self-esteem and employment opportunities of their children by teaching them, in English, desirable trades such as hairdressing.

Sulabh’s experience has the following implications for policy-makers:

• Toilets can be made popular through information, education and communication.
• Governments, non-governmental organisations and communities need to co-operate to make the implementation of toilet construction successful.
• Engineers, who may be initially reluctant to adopt the new technology, can be persuaded if the benefits, such as the lack of pollution provided by the twin pit system, are made clear.
• Financial support or loans are needed from donors, but public toilets can be run on a self-sustaining basis with built-in user charge escalation to meet rising costs.

id21 Research Highlight: 10 March 2003

Further Information:
Bindeshwar Pathak
Sulabh International Social Service Organisation Gram
Mahavir Enclave
Palam-Dabri Marg
New Delhi-110 045
India

Tel: +91 (0) 112503 2631 or 1519 or 2617
Fax: +91 (0) 112503 4014
Contact the contributor: sulabh1@nde.vsnl.net.in

Sulabh International Social Service Organisation

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