Seeing (But Not Smelling) Is Believing Kerala's Compost Toilet

Seeing (but not smelling) is believing Kerala's compost toilet by Paul Calvert are endemic, or that outbreaks of Pit latrines are cheap and effective - unless you cholera and dysentery occur year after have a high water-table. What's the alternative? year. And is it culturally acceptable? Raising awareness A lot of good work on sanitation has THE MARINE-FISHING communities lage. These plots are very congested already been done in many of the fish- of Kerala, in south-west India, are and over-used. It is almost impossible ing villages in Kerala, through effec- important contributors both to local to walk in these plots without coming tive awareness-raising and the con- food supplies and to the country's into contact with the raw faeces - and struction of pit latrines. But, although export earnings - 75 per cent of the most of the users are barefoot. In the relatively low-cost, this technology region's animal protein, while fish home, much of the food preparation does not suit these crowded fishing vil- from Kerala accounts for 25 to 35 per and eating is done on the floor. Typi- lages with a high water-table. Conse- cent of India's marine-product export cally, over 80 per cent of rural Kerala quently, many of these villages are earnings. But despite this apparent eco- households have no latrine facilities, completely neglected with regard to nomic success story, living conditions and at least 50 per cent are obliged to sanitation and related education. for most of Kerala's fisherfolk are fetch their water from communal wells. Intermediate Technology (IT) has overcrowded, unhygienic, and impov- The proximity of these weBs to private been working with two weB-respected, erished. soakaways or pit latrines has resulted local organizations: the Programme for Men defecate on the shoreline, while in water heavily contaminated with Community Organization (PCO), and women and girls use a number of des- coliform bacteria. It is hardly surpris- the Pulluvila Mahila Samajam ignated pieces of land around the vil- ing that intestinal worms and diarrhoea (women's group) to tackle some of

Hygiene survey people think that children's excrement into a latrine or quite limited; the preliminary faeces are not harmful to buried it. In the control village, data indicates that there are wo fishing villages in Ker- health. In the project village, the figure is 5.5 per cent. only 136 wells in the village, ala were surveyed: the pro- T 67 per cent do wash after han- of which 10 are large public ject village and a control vil- • Source of drinking-water dling children's faeces, a fig- bathing wells. lage. There were 49 respon- In the project village, only 41 ure that rises to 89 per cent in In response to the question, dents in the project village and per cent of respondents usually the control village. 'Do you ever take your drink- 18 in the control village. take their drinking-water from With regard to the disposal ing-water from the public • Attitude to children faeces a standpipe. Thirty-one per s of children's faeces, people well?' 55 per cent of the pro- cent usually obtain it from There were two points for ject village respondents said displayed a considerable lack public bathing wells. In the observation and one question. 'yes', and 39 per cent said of understanding of the health control village, the correspond- The question was, 'Is chil- 'no'. Among the control vil- implications (see Table I ing figures are 17 and 56 per dren's faeces harmful to our lage respondents, the figures below) with almost 90 per cent cent, respectively. health?' The observations are 61 per cent and 33 per cent. of respondents in both the pro- More than half (53 per cent) were: 'Are the adults' hands If one looks at the difference ject village and the control vil- of the respondents in the pro- washed after handling the between the percentage of lage leaving it on open ground, ject village have to take their child's faeces or cleaning the respondents in the project vil- the beach, or in open gutters. child's bottom?', and 'How are drinking-water from a public lage who usually takc drink- Only 10 per cent of the project children's faeces disposed of?' bathing well or from another ing-water from the public well villager surveyed threw the At least two out of three family's well (78 per cent in (31 per cent), and the percent- the case of age who sometimes do (55 per Table 1. Villagers' attitudes to children's faeces the control cent) it gives some indication village res- of the pressure on drinking- Harmful Do you wash Where do you pondents). All water supplies. to health? after handling? dispose of them? the wells Children's handwashing Yes No Yes No Pit Open Open Open are open. habits were also observed. In ground beach drain Also, the the project village, observers number of found that approximately half Project village 11 37 33 14 5 30 11 3 private fam- the children washed their Control village 6 12 16 1 1 12 1 3 ily wells is hands before meals and after defecation. But the majority of these wash only one hand, and Table 2. Village drinking-water sources do not use soap. After defeca- tion, those that do wash tend Source of drinking-water Do you ever take your drinking-water from a public to wash both hands with soap. well? In the control village, about Own well Other family's Public well Standpipe Yes No 60 per cent of the survey sam- well ple do not wash their hands, either before meals or after Project 11 19 2 15 20 27 defecation. Control 1 4 10 3 11 6

30 WATERLINES VOL. IS NO.3 JANUARY 1997 The compost toilet It was decided to explore the use of compost toi- lets; an option which would reduce water usage (currently between 20 000 and 50 000 litres per family per year) significantly. An even greater advantage is that water cannot be polluted with faeces and, therefore, the community does not have to go to great lengths to clean it again or dispose of it (and create a nuisance elsewhere for someone else). The compost toilet could be built to keep the faeces and urine out of the water- table and off the ground; away from feet, flies, dogs, and crows. There would even be a useful end-product, compost, which could be added to the flower beds at the community latrine, where jasmine is grown and sold as hair decorations. The first compost toilet, illustrated in Figures 1 and 2 simply comprises a raised slab over two vaults; plaster keeps the vaults waterproof. Vil- lagers deposit faeces into a hole over either of the two vaults and a funnel receives their urine. At the centre of the slab, between the two vaults, there is a trough above which people carry out anal cleansing. This trough is connected to the urine funnels, and flows to an evaporative reed- 'be.fe.c!>."hbl\. -to 'Jt><-<.tl: 1 bed outside the latrine. Before the start of each (t..P.Sf' b ••.•,,!,,~ six-month use cycle the vault is primed with a 1>e.~c:.~'b'\;'" ~-u dQAt\N~ V~ll-2 bed of straw, and the user sprinkles a spoon of ~~k (S

these problems. When the collaboration began, the villagers demonstrated very little awareness of the links between health, hygiene, sanitation, and water. People did not know that virtually all their wells were contaminated with faecal coli forms, or how this had happened; or that this was a major cause of sickness. Most people believed that bad smells make you sick; hence the clearing of throats and spitting on encountering one. The women consid- ered open defecation to be distasteful, as it afforded them no privacy. Handwashing before eating or preparing food, or after defecation was neither routine nor properly understood. Before deciding on the right course of action, therefore, IT, PCO and the Mahila Samajam carried out a hygiene survey to establish exactly what people I \ knew, did, and wanted (see box on page 30). y'~Il: 1 V~I\:2 Used.-r·(Ul-b w$,! lA<;...6 5'e.<-o~ b I-

WATERLINES VOL. 15 NO.3 JANUARY 1997 31 reduce the men's open defecation. As tern serving the community latrine community have resulted in the ongo- indicated above, pit latrines are inap- would take up too much space; it ing development of a smaller unit at a propriate because the village wells are would be difficult to use the final efflu- more competitive cost. so close to people's homes, which are ent during the monsoon rains when the built on sand, and the water-table is so land is waterlogged; and, in any case, high (0-1 m below ground). would not work well under a thick The women are the prime movers for cover of coconut palms. change; they are much more aware of these problems, which they have thought about and discussed at work- Open sesame! shops and meetings over the last three The first vault of the prototype com- years. Now they want a latrine that will post toilet was opened a year after it not only give them privacy but which went into operation. Six women used is smell-free; does not encourage flies; vault I every day for six months; then and will not contaminate the ground- they switched to vault II, leaving the water. faecal matter in vault I to compost for the next six months. There have been no problems with flies or odours, and Non-options the toilet has remained clean and pleas- Faced with these requirements, the co]- ant to use. The reed-bed needed addi- laborative team did not appear to have tional watering, indicating that a a great range of technologies to choose smaller area would be sufficient. from. If a reliable and adequate piped- The compost results were very water supply for everyone in the vil- encouraging; inside the vault was an lage could be assured, putting the almost dry, crumbly, black product sewage into the gfOund - using soak- with only a light, pleasant, 'earthy' aways, pit latrines and septic tanks - odour. This 'unveiling ceremony' was could be considered. The women's the acid test; the merest hint of a smell group considered this option. but no or something unsightly would have one felt confident that this type of meant instant death for the experiment. Above and below: Sameema water supply would become a reality, PCO's managing-committee secretary and Stalin prepare the evaporative given the increasing burden on water and civil engineer were looking on as reed-bed. supplies from the city and tourism; we opened the back wall of the vault. fishing communities always seemed to As each brick was removed, they s we go to press, we can report be the losers. And anyway, the vil- retreated another pace, quite convinced Athat, for the past five months, fam- lagers would still have to use their they were witnessing the opening of i]ies in the village have been operating wells for bathing and washing: 'No, we the gates of hell; they are now enthusi- six compost toilets, in addition to the have to look after our own water sup- astic promoters! six on the community latrine site. All plies and that means taking care of our Mahila Samajam members, all the of them are functioning well, with no wells.' PCO staff, various villagers, old and flies, no smells, and no problems! young, and pan- One of the objectives of this pilot chayat (local gov- project is to leave the Mahila Samajam ernment) members with a socially, economically. techni- came, with consid- cally, and environmentally sustainable erable trepidation, community latrine. The Mahila Sama- to see the product at jam President is keen for the commu- what was probably nity latrines to consist entirely of com- the greatest aware- post toilets, which she considers to be ness-raising event manageable, which save a huge for this technology amount of water (both in initial use, to date; seeing (and and by avoiding polluted groundwater not smelling) is treatment). She is also enthusiastic believing. about how easily the women are adapt- Eleven more com- ing to its use. At the end of 1996 it was post toilets are being built in the possible to construct a compost toilet village. Six of these for around Rs3500 Gust under £60). . . are gOll1g up 111 Mahila Samajam Clearly such luxuries as waterborne members' houses. The credit goes to Paul Call'ert is (//1 independent consultUlII piped sewerage were out of the ques- Leenama, the local team animator, and working for Intermediate Technology on fishing- community focused projects. He ;s interested in tion. Even a basic system is expensive, the team members Sameema, Stalin, sharing details of this initiative with others but in Kerala, the pipework would be and Benny. The PCO agreed to subsi- engaged in similar work. Colllact him at: in the groundwater. and the low-lying dize the first six village toilets, so the Intermediate Tecll1wloRY, My.\"I)J1House. Raiilmy land would also necessitate pumping women paid the first Rs I000 of the Terrace RURhy. CV21 3HT. UK. E-mail. c/o: stations. Night-soil collection was a Rs5000 cost. This compares with about [email protected] Fax +44 1788 540270. In Kerala: Programme for Community non-starter as people are highly Rs3500 for a single pit latrine. ($1 = argalli~ation, pca Centre, Spencer Junction, offended by their own faeces, let alone Rs37, £1 = Rs59.) The experience Tril'andrum 695039, Kerala, Illd;a. Fax +91471 their neighbours'! The lagooning sys- gained, and the positive reactions in the 45054/.

32 WATERLINES VOL. 15 NO.3 JANUARY 1997