By Deepti Priya Mehrotra
©Women's Feature Service
New Delhi -
"Ecologically designed toilets are important not only for developing countries, but for the developed world," asserts Dr Bindeshwar Pathak, 64, founder-Chairman of Sulabh International Social Service Organisation.
In the current context of climate change, with depletion of water resources and over-use of fossil fuels, Sulabh toilet systems use minimal water, trap biogas - which is otherwise released into the atmosphere - and produce bio-fertilisers. The Sulabh paradigm is low-cost, uses locally available material, ensures on-site disposal and treatment of human excreta, and efficient use of its by-products. Explains Pathak, "Our work thus contributes to addressing global warming and conserving water as well as non-renewable fuels."
Pathak had to struggle initially to establish his ideas through his pioneering organisation set up in 1970. Today, the Sulabh approach has gained worldwide recognition. In June 2009, Sulabh International was awarded the Intergovernmental Renewable Energy Organization (IREO) Award for its low-cost energy-efficient toilet systems. While receiving the award at the United Nations headquarters in New York, Pathak pointed out that this technology is generating energy through the organic breakdown of human waste and thus providing an alternative to conventional fossil fuels and geochemical sources of energy. In March, he was named the 2009 Stockholm Water Prize Laureate, a prize he will formally receive at Stockholm in August during the World Water Week. This honour is one among a long list of awards that have come his way, including India's prestigious Padma Bhushan in 1991.
Today, over 15 million people in 26 Indian states use Sulabh toilets. Around 1.2 million household toilets and 7,500 public toilet complexes have been built in hospitals, railway stations, airports, stadiums, hostels, religious centres, as well as in slums and rural areas. These toilets have reduced open defecation and the use of the bucket-system dry latrines, liberating in the process scavengers who had to manually clean dry latrines, a practice that has now been outlawed.
As users, women have been the primary beneficiaries of these eco-toilets. Pathak elaborates, "Women are the most enthusiastic, once they realise the benefits in terms of health, safety and human dignity. They have the most to gain. When one household adopts the Sulabh toilet, others follow, invariably led by the women of the household." He recalls his own spacious childhood home in Rampur Baghel village, in Bihar's Vaishali district, with its own compound, trees and temple - but no toilets. As in many parts of India, open defecation was the norm. Even today, village women wake before dawn for this purpose. Restrained from relieving themselves throughout much of the day, they suffer from several preventable diseases.
Adds Pathak, "In urban areas many dry latrines still exist, cleaned by scavengers, eighty per cent of whom are women. At Sulabh, we work to release them from this inhuman occupation, by creating alternative skills and job opportunities. For children from these families, education and vocational training are being provided so that they can escape from their low-caste status and demeaning hereditary occupation."
Sulabh scientists have created a pioneering technology, which it promotes through public-private partnerships. Its winning innovation is the pour-flush, twin-pit toilet, available in several models to suit different pockets and requirements. The toilet uses one to two litres of water, as compared to the 10 litres used by septic tank or WC facilities. One pit is used for two to three years, and left for composting when it fills up. Within a couple of years, the entire faecal matter is converted into use-able manure. An estimated 330 million tons of manure is currently being produced per year.
Declared a Global Best Practice by UN-Habitat and Centre for Human Settlements, the Sulabh twin-pit toilet is now recommended by the UNDP. It is used by more than 2.6 billion around the world and the water saved per day is calculated at a whopping 134.4 million litres, or nearly 50,000 million litres, annually.
Over 170 biogas plants are attached to Sulabh public toilet complexes. Its biggest toilet complex at Shirdi, Maharashtra, with a capacity to serve 30,000 users every day, has three biogas plants. This provides electricity to the entire toilet complex for illumination and water heating. Water produced as another by-product has a high plant nutrient value and is used to irrigate the green area around the complex. This water is safe for aquaculture, agriculture, gardening, cleaning floors, and/or discharge into any water body.
Sulabh technologies have another in-built advantage, which Pathak emphasises: They reduce the greenhouse effect arising from release of biogas - carbon dioxide and methane - during decomposition of human waste. Leach pits ensure that carbon dioxide is diffused completely into the soil through honeycombs. Anaerobic digestion of human waste in the biogas plant, using SET (Sulabh Effluent Treatment) technology produces methane, and directs it for use in cooking, heating and electricity generation. One person produces an average of approximately one cubic foot biogas per day, which means that Sulabh technologies are preventing approximately 87.6 million cubic metres of biogas from being released into the atmosphere.
But Pathak is concerned over the fact that the full benefits of these technologies are yet to reach the millions at the grassroots. Says he, "We are an NGO and can never achieve the scale of governmental outreach. We never patent our innovations, since we want them to spread. The government has taken up our technologies, but often applied them in a half-baked manner. Although it is subsidises the construction of toilets, these are often sub-standard. We try to train government personnel, and there is some improvement. But working with governments can be slow and painful, although it is essential."
The Sulabh public toilets operate on a unique use-and-pay system, with flexible rates depending on the clientele. This stable source of revenue also allows the NGO to run its programmes independently. Welfare initiatives like the Sulabh Public School in Delhi provides integrated education to 60 per cent students from families of scavengers. Says Sheel Prasad, 52, the Principal, "We also provide vocational training to the youth in diverse occupations including computer use, tailoring and stitching."
Women are involved in the toilet revolution, right from learning how to actually construct the two-pit toilets, to leading campaigns for health and hygiene. Explains Dr Namita Mathur, a medical doctor employed full-time in the Sulabh International Institute of Health and Hygiene (SIIHH), "We work in slums like Madipur and Mayapuri, campaigning door-to-door and imparting effective hygiene and health practices. We hold a clinic where women particularly come as outpatients. The work is built around the public facilities maintained by Sulabh, in collaboration with municipal authorities."
In Alwar, Rajasthan, Sulabh toilets have replaced the once-rampant dry latrines, and the programme Nai Disha (New Direction) started in 2003, has trained erstwhile scavengers in alternative vocations. Suman Chahar, 42, who heads Nai Disha, says, "Now women make and sell food items, clothing, and various handicrafts. During the training we provide a stipend, but later they are able to earn an independent livelihood." A number of social taboos have also been broken. Usha Chaumar, 32, reveals, "Earlier, people considered me untouchable. Today, they eat food items prepared by us. We have even met President Pratibha Patil and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, and attended the UN conference in New York in 2008!"
Today, the Sulabh concept is gaining international acceptability. Dozens of countries, including Ethiopia, Cambodia, Afghanistan, Haiti, Nigeria and Nepal, have expressed interest in it. A world wrestling with the consequences of climate change can gain immeasurably from these smart toilets that talk eco-sense.
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