In October 2002 at Thanneerpandal site office of SCOPE a dry compost toilet was designed and constructed at a cost of Rs.5,000/-. Rural Sanitary Mart at Thanneerpandal supplied the materials and the masons were given special training for the construction. As many as 3,372 persons used the toilet and when it was filled up, the first chamber was closed. The first compost chamber in the first ECOSAN toilet put up by SCOPE in Thanneerpandal was opened in the present ECOSAN specialists Prof. Jan Olof Drangert and Prof. Arno Rosemarin Sweden, on World Toilets Day, Nov 19, 2004 and the compost on analysis is proved to be very good and has been sent to scientific studies to many institutes.

The residents of the village, Kaliyapalayam who were keen to have pit toilets, were unable to take up the project in view of the high water table. When SCOPE mooted out the idea of ECOSAN Compost Toilets in individual houses in the village they had a lot o of apprehensions, and wondered how dry pit toilets could be accepted as they were foul smelling, harboured flies etc. The young and old in the village as also the men and women had been facing serious problems even for open defecation since the only open place available for them was across a main irrigation canal and it was very difficult for the people to access them during daytime even, let alone during nights.

A team of women from Kaliyapalayam headed by Mrs. Mangalathammal president of the SHG Group visited Thanneerpandal. During the visit they found that the Compost toilet was functioning very well and the users found no difficulty in washing after defecation or sprinkling ash over the faecal matter. There was neither foul smell nor flies. And the women hence decided to go for the ECOSAN Compost Toilet.