Features
of ECOSAN Compost Toilet
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ECOSAN toilet has two chambers and is used alternatively.
The toilet is provided with a concrete bottom so that there will
be no contact between the human excreta and the soil. After defecation
the user sprinkles ash over excreta so that there will not be any
fly or mosquito menace. He then closes the drop hole with a lid.
Only about three liters of water is needed for body wash in ECOSAN
Compost Toilet as against 12 to 15 in the conventional toilets.
In the first model ECOSAN Compost Toilet developed by SCOPE 2002
the wash water and urine were carried by a same tube to a pot with
hole kept outside the toilet and was used for watering the kitchen
garden. The wastewater from the toilets have proved to be highly
nutritious speeding up the growth of the plants raised in the kitchen
gardens close to the compost toilets. A family of five can use a
chamber for about eight to nine months. When it is full it is sealed
with a cement lid and left for about six to seven months when it
would become compost for the farms. A detachable concrete slab at
the rear portion of the ECOSAN Compost Chamber enables the easy
removal of the compost. When the first chamber is sealed the family
uses the second chamber.
The first pit of an ECOSAN toilet in Kaliyapalayam village
was closed on Sept 16th 2004, when it was full.
On June 28th 2005, the closed compost
chamber of the first toilet was opened in the presence of Mr. Kumar
Alok, Director TSC, GOI by Mrs. Shantha Sheela Nair I.A.S, RDLA
Sec. Over 50 delegates from all over India and abroad who had come
to attend a workshop on ECOSAN by UNICEF also were present on the
occasion. The analysis report showed that the compost contained
no pathogens and was a very good soil conditioner.
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