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.