SuSanA - Forum

Toilets' Tracking on Mobiles - by: F H Mughal

Thu, 09 May 2013 17:57:14 +0000

According to the Bangkok Post news (9 May 2013), Singaporeans can now track the state of the city-state's public toilets in real time, as a programme to monitor facilities' cleanliness gets its own smartphone application.

This app provides toilet users with the convenience of locating a clean toilet nearby and also providing feedback on a dirty toilet they have just visited.

The LOO (Let's Observe Ourselves) Connect app classes the country's 40,000 public toilets into categories from disgusting to certified.

Toilets need at least a 4-star rating to pass muster as user-friendly.

More news at: www.bangkokpost.com/breakingnews/349246/...s#.UYvgo_7OjjY.gmail

F H Mughal

Re: Festival toilets - by: cecile

Tue, 07 May 2013 07:48:20 +0000

Dear Mwaniki,
There is no offence in your comment. On the contrary, I learnt from your posts because as you rightly point out, it is a matter of cultural difference.
Best regards,
Cecile

Re: Festival toilets - by: mwaniki

Mon, 06 May 2013 18:13:17 +0000

Hi Cecile

My comment was not meant to offend anyone. I think my report was based on our social status here in Kenya. Some kind of behavior such as urinating openly is considered annoying to the general public and provocative. It is against the Laws of Kenya. It’s in the penal code. One can be arrested and charged with a misdemeanour in a court of law. What I see here is a disparity of culture and values between peoples of different places and times. Of course, this is characteristic of here but maybe presentational in the greater of the African continent. Maybe Africans are not yet that liberal but are consummate with other freedoms in expression, politics, religion etc

Am sure the Kenyan men can use the concept of uritonnoir during a bull party but certainly not in presence of their wives and daughters. Though the present constitution encourages gender equality there is a red line drawn on the limits as far as manners are concerned.I hope this answers your question.

The system here is that during social occasions one just hires the services of the 'Excloosive Toilets' and your guests just feel good with the utility. You flush after use, wash your hands with soap and its very hygienic. But all the same, I don’t mind using your concept once am in France. After all its said ‘when you are in Rome, do as the Romans do’.

Kind regards

Mwaniki

Re: Introducing x-runner mobile system - by: Jessixr

Mon, 06 May 2013 16:28:57 +0000

2. Financial analysis.
We charge 25 Soles (approx. 10$) a month for our pick-up service. This might seems like a lot, but is aligned with other services our customers use and in our surveys the price has been rated satisfactory. Older systems such as pit latrines (there are no public toilets) have been proven to have a very high installation costs: at times 800- 1000 Soles and then they also have to be either emptied or closed again, which also has its costs. Bucket toilets do not have any direct costs. It has to be understood here that our families really see the toilet as an upgrade in their lives and as a clear improvement of their housing. They say that the fact alone that they have a reliable toilet and a reliable service brings great ease of mind to their lives.
We need 500 households to achieve a service break-even.

Compost: We are just conducting a study about the composting landscape in Lima together with an engineer from the Agraria University. Lima has a very high need for compost since it is all desert. Many municipalities, parks and gardening companies here produce and use their own compost. There are also many companies that buy compost in very large quantities. We are just re-calculating some of our costs regarding the compost, so unfortunately also here I cannot give you a full answer at this point.

Re: Introducing x-runner mobile system - by: Jessixr

Mon, 06 May 2013 15:38:52 +0000

Dear Ben
Thank you for your questions. I will try to answer as many of them as possible.

Evolution of the design.
Our initial design, the rollable-mix-it-all toilet was designed for squatting and for the Indian market. It was a great concept, but proofed then in testing that there were too many difficulties with it, such as right kind of material, emptying, cleaning, and smell.
It was clear, that when we changed geographies that we would have to start over again. And so we did. But in Lima we decided to involve the users much more in the development process (not only in design research) and that's why we also went through so many versions: Our customers come back to us and give us feedback on how they want things differently and how we can improve. We listen to them and try to implement the changes as good as possible. The toilet changed from squatting to sitting solely for cultural/habitual reasons.

About the transportation of the feces.
We actually started a new logistic system that we tested with 10 families and that has proven to be quite successful: We asked families to bring their buckets by themselves to collection points (you can read more about it in our newsletter) in order to allow them a more flexible timeplan to replace the bucket.

We have been communicating with Cleanteam Ghana over the past 2 years and both parties have exchanged many of our experiences. Both projects are now at a stage where we can really compare results of our testing. However, we are still in an ongoing conversation and we might be able to jointly share some insights later on.

Re: Festival toilets - by: cecile

Mon, 06 May 2013 14:48:15 +0000

Dear Mwaniki,

What makes you say that the excloosive is more "civilized" ? Is it because on the picture, there is no privacy of the persons urinating ? Or is it because you don't like the idea of the straw ? Do you think that in Kenya, men would not like this concept of uritonnoir ?
I am asking this because in my country (France), I believe the users of the uritonnoir will probably find the concept really cool (of course, if there is no leachate and no smell hence my initial question !).
Here I am talking about mobile toilets, not toilets that people would have at home.

On festivals in France, as mentionned by Ben, there is a big tendancy to install composting toilets because people who attend the events are quite enthusiastic about green technologies. The plastic cabin toilets (often using chemicals to reuse water and prevent smell) are not really fashionable and not so sustainable.
By the way, the excloosive toilet, which content is dumped in a manhole does not look very sustainable to me either but the website does not give so much details. Doreen why did you promote these portable toilets ? What is the benefit of these toilets as a mobile solution ?

Thanks !

Re: Introducing x-runner mobile system - by: ben

Mon, 06 May 2013 10:16:22 +0000

Dear all x-runner team,
Thank you very much for sharing news from this thrilling project. First of all, congratulation on this implementation, I bet you’re very excited about the gradual scaling up your project is taking, I wish you the best for all the oncoming upgrades your project will get.
I’ve been following your work from the beginning and I’d like to ask you a couple of questions.

1. Evolution of the design.

What made you do an evolution from your initial design, which was on paper amazing, with the rolling drum and people bringing it themselves to the treatment plant. Was it sociological or technical barriers that made you go toward a chair toilet rather than a stand version? Was it unrealistic to ask people to transport it to the treatment plant?
Did you communicate yet with WSUP to compare dry systems like yours (necessity of ventilation, necessity to clean more often?, price of saw dust, lighter to carry, etc … ) with the ghanasan WSUP design (liquid system more expensive, maybe more appealing, longer time between cleaning?, heavier to carry, etc …). I would be thrilled to hear from you what you estimate being the pros and cons of both systems.

2. Financial analysis.

I would be extremely interested to see the financial analysis of the Mosan and Ghanasan project, still not available. Would you share with us the financial set-up of your project, like what are your projections of Capex / Opex? For how many house the system starts to be viable? How much cost the service compared with the average household income? What is the price difference between this nice services compared with the cost of old habits (i.e. public toilets etc…)? Is compost a rare good in Lima and therefore can be saleable for a good price, what does it represent in your balance sheet? Can the compost sales at least cover the treatment price, or can it even pay a bit of transportation too? Did you think of collecting all the household organic wastes in order to increase your compost production?
I know this is always a bit complicated to communicate figures of an ongoing project, but so far I haven’t seen rough estimates of financial set ups for urban sanitation services.
Thanks a lot for what you shared already and I don’t want to push too far your generosity, it’s just that I’m very very curious to see if these systems can one day be stamped as “sustainable” being financially viable without constant subsidies inputs.

Good luck for you all,

Ben

Re: Introducing x-runner mobile system - by: Jessixr

Sun, 05 May 2013 16:11:34 +0000

I forgot to attach our latest newsletter!

Introducing x-runner mobile system - by: Jessixr

Sun, 05 May 2013 15:52:40 +0000

Hello everybody

I would like to share some material and information on our x-runner sanitation project in Lima. (Thanks Elisabeth for the encouragement). We are just working on some new documents/plans and I will share more as soon as possible. We are also working on a new design with integrated sawdust flush and I hope to share soon some pictures and receive some feedback from you!
Also we are very active on Facebook where you can find many more pictures and videos.

Here again a quick overview:
X-runner brings waterless toilets and a weekly poop collection service to families that do not have toilets.
The x-runner toilets have been created with the customers for the customers: We use the urine-diverting principle and use sawdust (which is widely available in Lima) as cover material.
X-runner’s customers subscribe for a monthly fee to the poop pick-up service that replaces the families’ full toilet waste buckets with clean ones. The full containers are then transported to the x-runner service hub where the buckets are emptied and the content is treated through composting. The used buckets are cleaned and disinfected for future service rounds. The water that we use for cleaning we then filter and re-use it to irrigate our compost and our plants.

Here is our Video from October 2012:

Here is our latest brochure

Our first and our current toilet models:

Re: Festival toilets - by: mwaniki

Sat, 04 May 2013 03:27:40 +0000

Hi Cecile

I have seen this straw picture which is also new to me but if you go back some 6 weeks ago,Doreen had posted a more civilized toilet and directed you to a website www.excloosive.co.ke/

This kind of toilet is for all (ladies,kids & men) and for all purposes.

I hope this now clears the air.

Regards

Mwaniki

Re: Festival toilets - by: Florian

Fri, 03 May 2013 14:07:53 +0000

Hi Cecile,
I underastand that the uritonnoir is something new and that not yet much practical experience is available. Basically I've the same questions as you regarding applicability in practice. I imagine that once the the straw bale is full, it starts getting messy. So the main question is probably how to practally monitor and manage this on festivals (but then that's probably not much more easy for other systems). And one main disadvantage is of course that it's only for men
Regards, Florian

Re: Festival toilets - by: cecile

Fri, 03 May 2013 13:50:50 +0000

Hi Hamish,
I have 2 questions about Natural Events composting toilets.
Are they separation toilets ? Or do you have different kinds of systems ? On your website you talk about vermiculture (separation?) but there's also a picture indicating to put a scoop of saw dust after weeing, so I am confused.

What do you do with the residues collected during festivals. Huge amounts of urine and feces/urine/sawdust mixture are collected. Whate does is become once the festival is over ? Hygienisation ? Reuse ?

@Florian. Great link to the uritonoir ! Thanks
Do anyone on this forum have an experience in this kind of "straw urinal" ? In your opinio what is the absorbtion capacity ? Is there an ideal balance to get a good composting process (C/N ratio ? How many liters of urine per m3 or straw) ? What's the risk of leachate ?
Cecile

Re: Festival toilets - by: mwaniki

Thu, 02 May 2013 23:22:08 +0000

Hi Juergen

Its surprising to hear from some members that 'festive toilets' is a novel activity but here in Africa as Doreen points out, these structures are all the rage.

In the Nov-Dec 2010 of the Africa Water & Sanitation issue Vol.5 # 5 we featured Mr.Isaac Durojaiye of Nigeria, Founder,DMT Mobile Toilets in a story entitled 'Raising Health Standards by Answering Nature's Call'.This coincided with the World Toilet Day of that year (Nov 19).

In Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers in 2005,the then Secretary General of the United Nations was reported as saying' Nowhere in the world is poverty more visible,more destructive,more pervasive than in Africa.Too often Africa experience is associated only with stories of failure and pessimism, of wars and famines,floods and unrest..... specifically, we must address vigorously the water,sanitation and hygiene needs of the African people...'That paper encouraged me to launch the first issue of Africa Water & Sanitation in June 2006.

Am happy to see that today a different story is in the air coming from Africa....at last.

And in a comment in the Nov-Dec 2010 issue,I quote 'Some of the challenges to hygiene and sanitation are inadequate communication and information strategy with structured plan to continuously raise awareness and educate communities towards changing behaviour and securing positive attitudes on hygiene and sanitation,lack of awareness of actual and opportunity cost when sanitation is neglected (health system,economic development,agricultural production,environmental degradation etc)and poor people who are directly affected by inadequate sanitation don't have a political lobby.'End of quote.How true is this comment to this forum as far as educating communities is concerned ?

N.B.
Mr.Isaac Durojaiye is an Ashoka Fellow and DMT is an acronym for Dignified Mobile Toilets.

Regards

Mwaniki

Re: Festival toilets - by: ben

Thu, 02 May 2013 12:22:17 +0000

Dear all,

The ecosan renters for festival is actually pretty active in France. I wouldn't speak in their name but here is the link to there website :
www.rae-intestinale.org/

I'm sorry no english version yet of their website.

Best,

Ben

Re: Festival toilets - by: Florian

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 19:44:40 +0000

www.uritonnoir.com/
www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/architec...ale-urinal-festivals
www.spiegel.de/wissenschaft/mensch/apres...onnoir-a-895235.html

That one is so simple, that it could actually be really good.

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Note by moderator (EvM): this picture shows the principle even better: