Toilets and Urinals

"Innovations in Microfinance" Series

A debate on Private Sector approaches to Water Management for the poor provides a unique opportunity to learn about private sectro microfinance approaches to water management that have been used for a range of purposes from purchasing household water connections and clean water storage units, like rainwater harvesting tanks to the construction of household latrines.

The debate sponsored by the Citi Foundation & Arc Finance is to be held at the New York Asia Society and Museum. The event can also be accessed via a free live video webcast. More details below the fold.

Approximately 1.1 billion people lack clean water supplies and 2.7 billion have no access to proper sanitation. To combat conditions that lead to sickness and disease, low income families across Asia are asking for clean water and improved sanitation to keep their families healthy and productive. Sophisticated modern piped water networks are too expensive for most developing countries and poor people living in the slums often pay 5 to 10 times more per liter of water than wealthy people living in the same city. Sensing a business opportunity, microfinance organizations are beginning to explore the market for making water more accessible to the poor.

This presentation provides an introduction to the book by the Centre for Science and Environment(CSE) titled Sewage Canal: How to Clean the Yamuna”. As per the presentation, several crore rupees have been sunk into plans to clean up the Yamuna.

Image and Content Courtesy: DryToilet.org

The 3rd International Dry Toilet Conference- 2009- 2^nd announcement: The conference will be held from12^th to 15^th of August 2009 in Tampere University of Technology, Finland . The Conference is organised by The Global Dry Toilet Association of Finland, in cooperation with Tampere University of Technology, TAMK University of Applied Sciences and University of Tampere.

The main theme of the DT 2009 conference will be the evaluation of the achievements in sanitation after the International Year of Sanitation in light of the Millennium Development Goals.

Main topics of the Conference: 1. Health and safety 2. Technical development of dry toilets 3. Prospects and challenges in the reuse of excreta 4. Social, cultural, economic and gender aspects related to dry sanitation All experts are invited to submit their abstracts on any of the above mentioned topics or closely related ones.

A member of the PLC Watsan group Dhani behn, has built an Ecosan toilet for herself - one of the first in Gujarat-about a year back. This is one of the best toilets on Ecosan I have seen and the simple and elegant story of the same is hugely impressive. It is located in Bhavnagar Saurashtra - Gujarat. She was part of an exposure visit of PLC WatSan to a MYRADA project in Karnataka implementing ecosan. She has one simple reason for use of the toilet- it's less use of water. Even with a twin pit pour flush about 5 litres of water gets used for a single flush and in a day 20 to 25 litres of water can get flushed by one person. Even this is too much in arid and semi arid Gujarat. The transfer of knowledge has resulted in an elegant solution to an otherwise vexing issue that can be made applicable on a larger scale across the state. There exists tremendous interest in Eco-san from other parts of Gujarat too including the coast with its high and saline water table and the tribal hamlets with its hard rock terrain and the rest with a lot of water shortage.

"Megh Pyne Abhiyan" is a network of NGOS that has been working in flood affected areas in Bihar with Arghyam support for the past few years. MPA has been grappling with the idea of providing clean water and sanitation in Bihar.

In order to sensitise people towards health and hygiene, Public Health Engineering Department (PHED), Government of Bihar, WaterAid and UNICEF have taken up a month long Gram Gaurav Yatra to promote sanitation in Bihar. PHED Minister Ashwani Kumar Choubey announced the launch of Bihar Gram Gaurav Rath Yatra on January 28 that embarked on a Movement towards the noble mission of restoring human dignity and the self-esteem of rural Indians through the "GRAM GAURAV YATRA".

Since its foundation in 1968, the IRC International Water and Sanitation Centre (IRC) has facilitated the sharing, promotion and use of knowledge so that governments, professionals and organisations can better suppo

EEDS has successfully developed various models of light weight concrete composites Ecosan pans with the support of UNICEF, New Delhi and Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI), Sweden. These products were unveiled at the SACOSAN conference held in New Delhi recently.

IIT Delhi and Vigyan Vijay Foundation have been implementing a pilot project on Waterless Urinals. The project is supported by Stockholm Environmental Institute and UNICEF. These posters below have been developed as part of that project. The project aims to develop appropriate solutions for scaling-up Waterless Urinals at public places, institutions and homes. One of the core objectives of the project is to advocate waterless urinals as an integral component of toilets especially at homes whereby water and energy can be conserved and the environment is protected. We hope these posters will be of immense value to general public and practitioners looking for undertaking waterless urinals. For more information contact Ramesh Sakthivel , ramsakthivel@yahoo.com

Click below to View Posters in full size :

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