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Report
of First Urban Ecosaan Workshop in India in Trichy
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Lighting
the Kuthuvilakku
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The First Urban
Ecosan Workshop in the country was organised by SCOPE in Trichy
on November 6th, in collaboration with WASTE of Netherlands and
Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) Sweden.
Inaugurating the workshop Dr. M. Ponnavaikko, Vice Chancellor
of Bharathidasan University, said rapid urbanisation and the attendant
environment degradation, and increasing water scarcity should
make urban planners look for sustainable systems, which can meet
the requirements of the rising population. It is time ecological
sanitation (Ecosan) technologies that offer a range of options
for improving urban sanitation were promoted in a big way.
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He called for measures to sensitise people, especially those
in urban areas, to the need Ecosan toilets which were becoming
popular in China, Europe, Africa, Central America etc. where
the problem of water scarcity looming before the planet is
being understood.
Delivering the keynote address, Dr. Arno Rosemarin, Manager,
Research and Communications, SEI, said a large number of people
were being infected with soil-transmitted Helminths (worms),
and nearly 700 million people in 50 countries were eating
food infected with untreated sewage. About 15,000 litres of
water was used by a flush toilet users though he produced
only 50 litres of faeces and 500 litres of urine a year. Sustainable
solutions were not being adopted to tackle the global crisis.
Sanitation planning was the key, and stakeholders should be
consulted before implementing it. SEI promoted an Ecosan City
in Dongsheng province in China where dry toilet systems that
use saw dust instead of water have been installed in 830 apartments.
Sanitation paid for itself, as the benefits were worth 10
fold the cost, he said.
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Dr. Arno Rosemarin Presenting
the Toilet to SCOPE
Mr. Valentin Post, Netherlands,
addressing the conference. |
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Presiding over the workshop Mr. M. Subburaman, Director SCOPE,
said it was a historic day in the sanitation scenario of India,
when experts from abroad, India and planners from Trichy city
had come together to make a collective effort to answer the
needs of sanitation, health and hygiene and environmental
sustainability by 2015.
The world is today facing a major problem,
one of deteriorating quality of water, and the other shortage
of water and increased demand for water from various sectors.
In this context one has to remember that the present toilet
models consume over 50 per cent of the water available and
used by us. It is in this global context that the concept
of ecosan was born.
In the 4th World Toilet Summit in New Delhi
held in the first week of November 2007, top priority was
given to Ecosan, which was suggested as one very promising
solution to improve the quality of ground and surface water
and reduce the quantity of water needed for toilet usage .
Then came tsunami, and ecosan being the best
model for coastal area, over 1000 ecosan toilets have been
built, of them as many as 300 in Kameswaram village of Nagapattinam
District. BLESS, CREED, MYRADA, Palmyra and other NGOs have
been popularising same in other districts.
The first ecosan chamber of the first toilet
of Mrs. Shanthi in tsunami hit coastal village of Kameshwaram
was opened by Mrs. Amudha, I.A.S., formerly of UNICEF and
at present Collector, Dharmapuri District. She has been a
source of strength in all our sanitation and ecosan ventures.
UNICEF appointed SCOPE as technical consultant
for dissemination of ecosan concept and training of masons
in all states of India, and so far we have conducted programmes
in six states.
SCOPE has been gaining more experience in
ecosan toilet. Urine and compost from ecosan toilets are being
used for agriculture and Tamil Nadu Agriculture University
has undertaken, two year research study on this aspect.
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Participants Listening the speech
of Mr. Valentin Post.
Mr. Valentin Post, looking at
the compost in the opened chamber |
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The Urban Scenario :
SCOPE who had gained some experience in ecosan toilet models
in rural areas has been planning to organise an Urban Ecosan
Workshop for past many months. The urban Ecosan is different
from rural Ecosan. It required a very different approach,
model, and close co-ordination with Government agencies, and
the people.
With growing urbanisation, demand for water in urban areas
will increase which means the amount of water used in toilets
too will go up. We have hence to work fast, and also in a
highly co-ordinated manner. The challenge is to first change
the mindset of people by creating an awareness of the present
world water scenario, and how rapid increase of conventional
toilet models will add further to our problems.
Last month I had the good fortune to attend
the Fourth International Conference on “Sustainable
Sanitation in Dongsheng, in Erdos City, China”, in this
city a pioneer in the field of urban ecosan a new district
consisting of 825 ecosan toilets has been, built with the
technical guidance support of SEI headed by Mr. Arno Rosemarin.
He is with us today along with two of his colleagues Ms. Cecilia
Ruben, SEI, Ms. Madeleine Fogde, SEI.
Mr. Valentin Post, Desk
Officer, WASTE, in his special address, highlighted the need
for reaching out to all sections to promote the concept of
ecosan which was the most environmental, friendly model and
helped reuse of urine and faeces for promoting agricultural
productivity.
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The owner of the Toilet receiving
the gift from Mr. Valentin Post.
The Board shows the Dilution
ratio of Urine and Water |
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Mr. S. Paramasivan: Country Director, Wherever There is Need
, (WTN), Pondicherry, stressed the need for taking ecosan
as holistic solution for prevention of environmental and water
source degradation, and pointed out the defects of the present
system of disposal of human waste. He said that other toilet
models were polluting the soil, earth and water sources, and
they were not environmentally friendly.
Ecosan had much greater significance in urban
areas since due to a variety of reasons there was steady migration
of people from rural areas to urban are, creating tremendous
pressure on the existing already over-burdened infra structure
facilities.
Dr. Lucas Dengel : The need for adopting
new technologies to ensure sustainability of the environment
was highlighted by Dr. Lucas Dengel, of Auro Annam, Aurovile.
He said that in this context, he explained use of Effective
Micro-organism (E.M.) solution and solid waste management,
sanitation and health hygiene, etc. He said that ecosan could
be taken to urban areas and for the support of research institutions
was very necessary.
Welcoming the gathering Mr. V. Ganapathy,
Liaison Officer, SCOPE, said the Ecosan was holistic concept
for sustainable sanitation which was economic viable Avoided
negative impact on environment and minimised health risks.
The workshop would prepare a road map for promoting urban
Ecosan.
A ceramic urban ecosan toilet model in the
multi-storeyed apartments in Erdos city China was presented
by Dr. Arno Rosemarin to the Director, SCOPE.
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The Urine and Dilution Tank
The Urine and Dilution Tank
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Technical Session:
SCOPE has decided to form a working group
for promotion of Urban Ecosan in Trichy City, as a follow
up of the first Urban Workshop held in Tiruchy. The working
group consisting of experts from various fields will take
necessary steps based on the recommendations the workshop.
Dr. Arno Rosemarin, course
Director, and Manager, Research and Communication SEI, Sweden
conducted the technical session assisted by Ms. Cecilia Ruben
and Ms. Madeline Fogde of SEI. The urgent need for creating
an awareness among the Tiruchi citizens of the dangers posed
to the city by increased garbage generation, steep increase
in precious protected water used for toilet and bathing purposes,
and how ecosan cold help the citizens to save water and use
the nutrients in human waste for improving environmental sustainability
and farm production.
Mr.Valentin Post, who presided
said that it was quite clear that the facilities available
with the Tiruchy Corporation was stressed to the maximum because
of ever increasing garbage generation on the one hand, reduced
water supply, irregular water supply, and inability of corporation
to get support of public for making city clean and green,
since sanitation and garbage management was not their priority.
Mr. V. Ganapathy, Liaison
Officer, explained that the garbage-generated daily was about
400 tones, and as much as 121 million liters of water was
going down as sewerage in the underground system. There was
no sludge treatment facility in the compost yard of the corporation
in Panhcapur. About 30 percent of the city would not have
protected good water supply and sewerage system even after
the completion of current project being implemented at a cost
of about Rs. 160 crores.
Then there was an interaction between the
participants, the experts helped them to priorities their
programme for ecosan in a selected part of the city, as a
pilot model.
Mr. Anselm Rozario of MSSS, Bangalore,
Dr. Manivel, Department of Geography and Remote Sensing, Bharathidasan
University, Dr. Raghuramadas Project co-coordinator, Mittraniketan,
Trivndrum, Dr. Lucas Dengel, Auroville, Mr. Vijayakumar, Architect,
Tiruchi, Prof. K Valliappan, of Tamilnadu Agriculture University,
Coimbatore, Dr. K. Parthasarathy, IECD, BARD; Ms. Rimi Goswami,
Project Officer, Arghyam, Bangalore, Dr. M. Ravichandran,
HOD, environmental Science, BARD, Mr. Varun Ayyar, Krishnamoorthy
Foundation School, Adyar, Chennai, and others. took keen interest
in the discussions beside others.
Mr. Valentin Post and Dr. Arno Rosemarin,
by a series of questions and comments to the participants,
suggested that the first step should be to define the area
where the pilot project could be initiated, the client, who
will undertake it (the stakeholders, the different options
and plans for funding the project, who shall co-ordinate the
activities of various departments, and stakeholders. They
also wanted opinion and policy makers, media, industrial establishments,
environmentalists, educational and research organizations
to be associated with the planning of the pilot project.
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group formed : Mr. M. Subburaman
Dirctor SCOPE announced that a working group will be formed
for a pilot ecosan project in Tiruchi city in Srirangam or
Khajamalai area after further discussions with the stakeholders.
There will be network for urban ecosan consisting of senior
officials, NGOs, Educational and research organisations, research
scientists etc,
to promote the concept of ecoasan in urban areas at the state
level.
SCOPE will explore possibilities of Urine
diversion ecosan toilets in an educational institution in
Tiruchi.
The members of the working group will be:
1. Trichirappalli Corporation Officials
2. Engineers
3. Designers
4. Stakeholders
5. Mr. Siva Raman, Retired Chief Engineer.Trichy.
6. Professor Dr. Renganathan , Agriculture College.
7. Professor Dr. Ravichandran , Environment Department, BARD
8. Dr. K. Parthasarathi, Director, IECD, BARD.
9. Mr. Theresnathan, Field Publicity Officer, Govt. of India.
10. K. Subburaman, Youth co-ordinator, NYK.
11. Mr. R. Vijaya Raghavan Architect
12. Mr. Chandranesan Architect
13. K.G. Meenakshi – Correspondent Balalaya School.
14. Ms. Sakunthala, FEDCOT
15. Mr. M. Subburaman, Director , SCOPE.
16. Mr. V.Ganapathy, Liaison officer, SCOPE
17. Mr. Ayoob, former AIR – Director.
18. Mrs. J. Geetha, Gramalaya.
19. Mr. Narayanan, Gramiyam.
20. Mr. K.M. Ratnam, AFDORP.
A Meeting of the working group for piloting
urban ecosan in Trichy city will be convened shortly.
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Field
Visit : About 30 delegates later
took part in the field visit to Musiri, to know hand how the
user-families accepted the ecosan toilet, and also know in
detail the various features and usage practices of ecosan
toilets.
Dr. Arno Rosemarin opened the compost chamber
in the residence of Mrs. Veeramma Reddy. All the delegates
found that the compost had no smell, handled it, and also
asked many searching questions to the family members, and
their neighbours. They also saw the first Ecosan Community
Compost toilet in Saliyar street, and learnt how it was working.
They showed keen interest in the various arrangements made
for collection of faeces, wash water and urine, the usage
of urine collected in the tank, how the compost chamber size
was arrive at, research activities with urine by TNAU, who
was in charge of operation and maintenance, role of SHGs and
Panchayat in the maintenance of ECCT etc.
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