Yolandi Groenewald*
JOHANNESBURG, Oct 26 2007 (IPS) – Waterless or composting toilets are being touted as a promising solution to many of South Africa #39s sanitation woes.
Currently, just under 14 million of the country #39s approximately 48 million citizens lack access to sanitation, and about 200,000 households are reliant on the bucket system. As more demands are placed on national water resources, it appears increasingly unlikely that homes without sanitation will be able to receive the popular flush toilet hence the search for solutions elsewhere.
It is only in the past couple of years that the government listed dry sanitation solutions as an acceptable form of sanitation (and) that various government departments have started to entertain the use of waterless toilets as acceptable sanitation systems, said Alfie Heeger, director of corporate affairs at African Sanitation, a local firm that sells composting toilets.
But, critics ask, why is it that the poor account for the vast majority of people getting waterless toilets? In a water-scarce country like South Africa, shouldn #39t these ecologically-friendly toilets also be installed in upmarket homes?
There have been reports of communities rejecting waterless toilets because they want flush toilets.
Across the country, when we talk about sanitation, people want to know why they should have VIP Toilets, low flush or (composting) systems when the rich suburbs have always had those nice, clean flush toilets, said Deputy Science and Technology Minister Derek Hanekom at an ecological sanitation conference in the port city of Durban last year.
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VIP toilets are Ventilation Improved Pit latrines.
Hanekom added that without the support of communities, there was little hope of making the transition to waterless toilets, a view echoed by Heeger.
The current mindset in South Africa is that everyone wants flush toilet systems, he said. However with current fresh water supplies depleting (and) the effect of global warming, the cost of installing and maintaining flush water systems will soon prompt the so-called rich to move towards waterless eco-friendly systems. These trends are already to be found in countries such as Canada.
Composting toilets have also proved popular in Sweden, Heeger added.
Still, middle class buyers for ecologically-friendly toilets remain scarce in South Africa, said Ernst Tiedt of ECOSAN another waterless toilet firm.
You only market the toilets to the middle class with effort. While there is potentially a market for especially green conscience consumers, it has not taken off in South Africa at all like in other developed countries.
The internet features many photos of beautiful bathrooms in the developed world that make use of composting toilets. Until you try to flush the toilet, it is impossible to detect that it is not a conventional loo.
But at the moment, noted Tiedt, the range of composting toilets in South Africa is limited to the basic low-cost housing range that is being installed across the country: If we want to sell the toilets to the middle class, we will have to improve the designs of the toilets and beautify it.
More optimistically, a number of exclusive tourist facilities such as the Teniqua Treetops treehouses along the coastal Garden Route have started to use composting toilets.
As far as low-cost housing is concerned, the toilets have been most widely used by local governments in Durban and the Northern Cape province. In other parts of the country the VIP toilet has been the most popular form of sanitation for many local authorities.
Tiedt says municipalities opt for VIP toilets because they cost less: a composting toilet is about 370 dollars more expensive than a VIP toilet.
VIP toilets can also be used by a whole block of people inside a settlement, whereas it is recommended that a composting toilet be used by one family only.
However, when VIP toilets fill up after three to four years, government either has to empty them at great cost or move the toilets to another location. There have also been reports of VIP toilets not being installed properly, which leads to pollution of water resources.
Education is key to the successful use of a waterless toilet: families have to clean the toilets by removing composted urine and faeces. While there is no health risk in doing this, many consumers still balk at the idea of handling their own faeces, and have to be educated to the contrary.
We have developed a delivery plan that will ensure community participation in the implementation and community acceptance (of composting toilets), noted Heeger. Tiedt said his firm had also done extensive education sessions with the recipients of its toilets.
So How Does a Waterless or Composting Toilet Work?
The basic principle behind this toilet is that it allows faeces to dry and then turn into compost. The facility is waterless, free of chemicals and say proponents also odourless, unlike pit and VIP latrines.
Certain composting toilets use fans to circulate air and increase microbial activity in the facility; others require the user to rotate a drum within the toilet to encourage aerobic breakdown of waste.
All waterless toilets require eventual removal of composted waste, although a full size facility can keep functioning for years if the tank volume is sufficiently large. Smaller systems may need to have solids removed several times a year.
African Sanitation #39s toilet works by retaining faeces on a grid that is suspended between the toilet bell and toilet base. Air within the toilet bell is heated by urine, which creates an upward flow from underneath the toilet grid that passes through and over the solids. The toilet bell and drawer allow for the further inflow of oxygen rich air into the bell.
The entire process assists with dehydration of the faeces, a process enhanced by the use of bulking agents such as grass clippings, sawdust, straw or ash. Constant ventilation ensures that odours are discharged through a vent pipe.
When the waste is ready to be removed, it consists only of relatively small quantities of inoffensive, dry material. At this point the waste is either pathogen-free or has a very low count, suitable for further composting. The waste is taken out by removing the drawer from the bell and emptying its contents.
* This article is being published jointly by IPS and South Africa #39s #39Mail Guardian #39 newspaper.
