Hello everyone,
I am the designer of the portable sanitation solution MOSAN, which was designed for the urban poor in 2011.
MOSAN is an urine-diversion dry toilet which is used in a sitting posture. The toilet has 3 main components: a main pot, a separation toilet seat and a lid. There are two inner containers for excreta collection.

The toilet only collects excreta, no flushing water, no anal washing water or any kinds of waste should be added. Faeces has be be covered properly with dry material like ash or saw dust. This avoids smell, keeps faeces dry (reduces pathogens) and makes the content less unsightly for the next user.

In December 2011 we built 2 functional prototypes in Germany. One is currently exhibited at GIZ headquarters in Eschborn. For more information about the prototyping process in Germany, Bangladesh and our work, please read the topic "moSAN - mobile toilet for the urban poor in Bangladesh" or have a look at our tumblr blog mosan-bangladesh.tumblr.com

In May 2011 simple prototypes were tested for 4 days in Bangladesh and in summer 2012 two willing users, one male and one female, tested one advanced prototype in Germany (see pictures below). The test results will now be used for a redesign and further development of the concept.

In this regard we would also like to get YOUR FEEDBACK. What do you think about the toilet design?
We would like to discuss ideas and sketches to optimize the MOSAN toilet to become the most desirable toilet on earth

Here some notes and feedback from our first test use in Germany.
The toilet was used in-house to urinate and to defecate by a male person for one day. Faeces were covered with bark chips. The toilet lid was closed after each use. Toilet paper was put in an extra wastebin.

- no smell occurred over one day (the bathroom window was closed)
- sitting height ok, but could be too high for children or women
- the urine funnel is not deep enough, the user reported skin contact with the inner funnel surface and with separation wall between funnel and opening for faeces
- the lid should be more stable
- the inner container size was sufficient, but needs to be adapted to family size or households that share the toilet

What do you think about the optical design? Please feel free to give your critical feedback!
Do you have an idea how to optimize the toilet for anal washing habits?
The current design is not made to collect washing water. Washing has to be done separately. e.g. over a bowl. Do you see any solution how to improve the comfort for washers?

The next days I will upload some of my own new ideas in form of sketches. But please start discussing and tell us what you would change on the design!

Many many thanks in advance for your all your input, help and interest in Mosan!

Dear Mona,

I am currently researching/writing my Master Thesis (MSc Urban Management) in Nepal, on alternative solutions for urban environmental sanitation. I am really impressed by the design of the MoSan toilet, and look forward to seeing more user-testing and modifications according to the users' suggestions.

Just one idea - would it be an option for the lid to be designed in such a way that it could 'double-up' as an anal washing bowl? So when the toilet is in-use, the user could simply fold back the lid, which also acts as a water collection vessel, and the 'handle' could be modified to perform like a funnel - either channeling water into a sand-filter, or collection pot to be disposed elsewhere.

Perhaps you have already considered this. If not, I can provide some sketches in the case that this description doesn't make sense

Cheers,
Laura

Mona wrote:


This is a very important point... especially if I imagine sitting hunched forward with my ellbows on the knees "it" reaches quite far down

On another note... did you consider a squatting version? Especially in the countries you seem to be targeting, that is really the preferred way of going to the toilet.

Dear Mona,

Thank you very much for sharing the interesting study.

Your question--'Does someone know about approved methods for user interviews after testing a new product? Is it better to first start with questionnaires and later do interviews in person?'

Suitable Methods: Focus Group Discussion (FGD) would be the suitable one. However, a local community leader is needed to guide and to contribute in this open discussion process.
Key Informant Interviews and Household Questionnaire survey can be executed after this. Those techniques are available and can be found in any search engine.

As Bangladeshi researcher, I had a lot of opportunities to successfully apply this kind of methods in rural, peri-urban/slum and urban areas in Bangladesh and abroad, especially the FGD with the help of natural or community leaders.

Thanks lot .

Nazim
PhD Researcher and Project Manager
Sustainable Sanitation for Vulnerable Population in Mongolia
Center of Sustainable Environmental Sanitation
University of Science and Technology Beijing, China
Action Contre la Faim(ACF) International and ACF Mongolia.

@laurabrightdavies

Dear Laura,

many thanks for your idea and writing the first post to my questions.
Adding the washing function to a toilet pot, that is used in sitting posture is actually a challenge, thats also why I asked all of you. Your idea to double use the lid is great and I tried to design it in a similar way. But there are two difficult points:
1) Anal washing in a sitting posture is difficult as long as you don't have a shower to push the water to your butt (like a bidet or a shower head). While squatting the butt is the lowest point of your body and the water goes automatically the right way, so you don't need any automatic device, you can simply use a "bodna" or any other jug to pour the water. (this is the result of user surveys and testing different toilets in Bangladesh myself
So far I don't know about any simple technology to wash yourself in a sitting (or bended) posture. Please let me know if you do!


2) Another point is, that including washing water inside the toilet makes the toilet heavy, uncomfortable to handle and difficult to empty. Users in urban slums in Bangladesh reported they use on an average 2,5 liters of water for each anal hygiene and a similar amount after urinating. This means a lot of water per day, per family and a lot of weight.
Since the toilet is designed to be very mobile, easily to carry, easily to empty, small and handy, I will try to avoid any increase in size or complexity. But this makes it even more difficult to find comfortable solutions for every habit.

When I researched for anal washing solutions, one idea was to take off the lid, turn it around and squat over it for washing (the squatting equivalent to your idea). Either a pipe would channel the water into a separate container or the user pours it manually into it. But after using the lid as a bowl it will be wet and always make the toilet wet when closing the toilet.
All of this brought me to the point to find a separate solution for washing and collecting the water, but since I am not very happy about this I asked all of you. So please if you see any other comfortable solution, share your idea or disabuse me if I'm wrong.

@nazimuddin

Dear Nazim,

many thanks for sharing your experience on surveys and testing new products. After our current design phase we will produce more prototypes for a field test with potential users and then conduct focus group discussions and surveys. In that phase your knowledge will be very helpful! And we would love to go to Bangladesh for testing the toilet. So please stay in touch!

Thanks,
Mona

@ JKMakowka

Dear JKMakowka,

of course we will change all critical parts and shapes they were reported as uncomfortable.
For example, these parts will be optimized:
- urine funnel size/ shape
- separation wall height
- sitting height of toilet
- side handles shape
- lid stability and lid handle design
- simplifications on all shapes for easier production and transport

The team of x-runner already designed a very clever mobile squatting toilet. The Mosan toilet will be a suitable product for people who are used to a sitting posture, people with disabilities, elderly and all people who prefer sitting.

Thanks for your advice!
Mona

Dear readers,

I am looking for information or reports about the use of UDDT's by small children. I know it might be difficult for small children to use adult size toilets (like this squatting UDDT in South Sudan)

But are there urine-diversion toilets specially made for children, small potties with a low height?
Please let me know about your experiences?

Many Thanks in advance!

Dear Mona,

I do not know of any UDTs designed especially with children in mind. I guess if there is anything at all it would be in school wash.

To return to your question regarding evaluation tools. We use a voting system in our FGDs that we feel gives good results, I will quickly describe it below.

The concept is that the people in our focus group get to vote anonymously on a number of questions. Usually we have around 15 questions and the discussion then takes about 3 hours.

The voting system works with colored beads. Everyone attending the discussing gets a handful of beads in 5 different colors. We then ask our questions as multiple choice questions with 5 possible answers. the question and the answers are written on a large sheet of paper in front of the group (you prepare the question banners before the meeting). Each answer then gets assigned a color, so all answers have a color that corresponds with the colored beads people have. After a question is presented and discussed a person goes around the room with a non-transparent bag, each person in the room then gets to put the bead of the color that represents their answer in the bag. This way people can give their answers anonymously, obviously that also means you can't link answers to people or income groups. After everyone has voted the beads are then counted in front of the group, the community mobilizer then discusses the results with the group, to see if the answers are deemed reasonable by the group and why the answers are the way they are.

An example could be a question of how much time people spend getting water to their houses every day. The answers could be:
0-15 minutes = green
15-25 minutes = blue
25-35 minutes = yellow
35-45 minutes = purple
45-60 minutes = black

After the social mobilizer has asked and explained the question, a person goes round with the bag and collects a bead for every person. The beads are then counted and the scores written on the paper banner with the questions and answers. For example the result could be:

Total people present in the focus group = 30
green (0-15 minutes) = 8 beads
blue (15-25 minutes) = 2 beads
yellow (25-35 minutes) = 1 bead
purple (35-45 minutes) = 5 beads
black (45-60 minutes) = 14 beads

We would probably be a bit surprised at this data set, because it is so heavy on the extremes. Thus we discuss the results further with the group. From the discussion the answer to the strange distribution could be that a group of people living in one district has piped water access, while everyone who does not has to walk very far to get water.

The example above is a bit overly simple but I think you get the idea.

regards

Marijn

This looks a really interesting project. My biggest concern would be the collection element and how everything is dealt with subsequently. As some of you know we operate a whole community ecosan programme in Cuddalore, India, servicing 3,500 per day together with a further 2,000 people in nearby rural villages. Of course we use UDDTs and so we have no smell and both faeces and urine are stored separately from day one (which may be the case here as well). We already have several thousands of kilos of faeces composting and it is becoming a greater logistical challenge each month, which fortunately we are on top of. I would not trust this to the municipal authority. We also have two men we employ, a vehicle, collection cycle and a compost sales process. This experience will be useful when we trial the system in a true 'inner-city' environment, hopefully next year.

Sorry, I would like to add one thing. On a personal level I am not sure we should be trying to get people to change cultural habits, i.e. from squatting to sitting. I totally understand the reasons behind it, but it doesn't sit (!) comfortably with me.

Hi Mona,
have a look at the construction manual we made
www.susana.org/docs_ccbk/susana_download...ultrotariaperuen.pdf
page 14 gives some aspects to look for and erros to avoid.



(Thanks Trevor for the advice how to insert a picture)

Yours

Christoph

Dear Dave,
This topic might move to be a new topic (Service models) but I will answer it here. First of all I would like say that I´m happy to hear that the number of groups trying out service models is growing and I totally agree with an idea, that in early stage it has to done by people who have the strong will to overcome problems – which are normal to a new approach. But I disagree with you when you write .
How about water supply, don´t you trust the municipality on that? How about sewage systems? How about garbage collection?
I don´t discuss with you the severe failures there are. We have to work on that in order to get better. In my opinion the municipal authority is THE ONLY solution to go to scale. How they do it, by outsourcing to a private, maybe an NGO as well, by building up an area, by integrating it with their sewage or garbage service…. those are all models to be tested out and probably they will exist side by side as there are lots of models how to provide sewer borne sanitation. But the responsibility for sanitation has to be with the municipality! By most laws and regulations the responsibility for sanitation is by the municipality. You might answer that the non sewer areas are not included. That is the crucial point. Most municipalities do not define the non sewer areas as their responsibility, but if we really want to see these systems in scale, the responsibility has to be with the municipality  obligation of funding, possibility of funding, obligation of thinking about solutions.
Sorry eThekwini people, I have to mention you again. They took the responsibility for these areas and had to deal with large problems…you all know the story they are still struggling but they are on track and way ahead.
Yours
Christoph
P.S. I very much agree on your concern of the change o behavior squatting – sitting.

We are in the early stages of our trials and as you say at this stage it may not be appropriate to involve the municipality (who do know what we are doing by the way), so I should have been clearer. In fact, our longer term plan is to create the template for local business people to run models like this, not local councils. I will continue to build a robust model that will appeal to investors as I believe this is the most likely way of reaching scale in many countries. In addition, the Tamil Nadu State Government is monitoring what we are doing and actively (and financially significantly) subsidising our rural village work.

But do I trust the municipality? Indian water and rubbish systems... Ummm, I will think about that one!

David

Please contact me on This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it should you be interested in childrens UD pedestals.

Thank you

Guy

Dear Marijn,

many thanks for sharing your experiences. I really like the idea with colored beads. I can imagine this is a great way to get more people answering questions about sensitive topics like sanitation!

Dear David, dear Christoph,

many thanks for supporting this discussion and taking it to one of the most important points: the sanitation service! We are aware of the logistical challenge of a manual emptying service and treatment service. The process of emptying the toilet, collection from house-to-house and transport to the place of treatment needs to be as comfortable as possible. Using bags inside the toilet could be one solution to avoid smell during the steps of collection and transport. But for sure the collectors (and users) need to be schooled well and work very precise. Next month we will start designing a detailed service chain and plan trials for next year. We will update you with our ideas soon.

Also important to say: we never planned or plan to change people's behavior. We only reported that during our research in Bangladesh, even people with squatting habits showed great interest in a sitting solution. One family with a very clean superstructure squatting toilet in front of their house (provided by an NGO) wanted to test the MoSan toilet. The mother reported how comfortable it was for her children not to go out at night and be scared at the dark toilet. This example shows, that in some situations an in-house sitting toilet might be also a good solution for people with squatting habits (e.g. for elderly and people with disabilities).
But we will never convince people to use MoSan against their will or try to change their habits!!!
Hopefully one day urban slum dwellers will have the choice to decide between different innovative sanitation solutions

Hello everyone,

next year we aim to test the MoSan toilet in Africa, so we need to have some prototypes ready for shipping. Thats why we will produce 10 prototypes in Germany within the next 2 month, update and improve the design. Here some notes to the planned changes on the MoSan design and the sanitation service.

We decided to change the way of prototyping from manual laminating with fiber and epoxy to vacuum forming (also called deep-drawing) with plastic sheets. It simplifies the prototyping process a lot and has many more advantages, e.g.
- the recycling of the toilet itself is way easier, since thermoplastics are used and the plastic could be recycled for new production
- the toilet will be lighter and all surfaces will be smooth and water repellant
- as a result the cleaning of the toilet will be easier and more hygienic.

One important change will be that all parts become stackable. That means we need to change the shape of the main pot and adjust all angles.

Another change is, that the toilet shall also be usable for more than 24h without emptying. Usually we planned the collection service collects inner containers every 24h. This is probably still the most comfortable solution for the users, since no smell will occur and the toilet never fills up completely. In cases, this service becomes too expensive or other problems come up, we will ensure the toilet is still be usable.
One idea is, to provide additional urine containers/ bottles, for replacement. All containers have screw lids and are "branded" with the MoSan identity and logo (which will be designed during the marketing phase).
Another idea is to attach a tube which drains the urine into a big external container. It might be worth a try to connect two or more households to one urine container.

We will also test the usage of biodegradable bags inside the faeces bucket. This means the inner toilet bucket will stay always with the family and only the bags are collected and transported off site. An extra collection bin will be provided for storing full bags. The collection service will then pick up the storage bin and urine bottles or replace the bigger urine container shared by two families.
The combination of bags and multiple urine bottles or bigger external urine containers offers a multiple day use of the MoSan toilet.

We are looking forward to your feedback!

Mona

By the way, I found a UDDT seat for children, which can be used with sitting toilets:
www.berger-biotechnik.de/trenntoiletten/...r-trenntoiletten.php

Dear Mona,

I really like your product and I think its great that you are taking it through so many tests.
Just some general issues with the Prototyping, which you have probably already thought of:

- Since you say you want to make the product stackable you are probably thinking of changing the shape of the pot anyway to make the cross-section area (viewed from top) decrease towards the bottom. When designing this you should consider minimum angles and thicknesses of material for vacuum forming or deep drawing but you can best discuss this with the person operating the vacuum forming or deep drawing machine.
- If you are designing the product for manufacture what manufacturing processes are you considering for a final product? I think you might be able to do some interesting things with rotational moulding. You could make the whole thing out of one mould or two lids, two main pots out of one mould. You then simply cut it into the separate parts.
- Also consider adding ribs into your prototypes. They would make the final product stronger and long lasting but might effect the user interaction when cleaning.

I am currently working on a project that focuses on sanitation facilities for disabled in peri-urban areas in Zambia. I think your Idea of targeting the product at elderly or disabled is good. There are many who have difficulties traveling to pit latrines in wheelchairs or with Crutches on the uneven terrain especially at night and rely on others to take them. So for them a portable solution with a container that can be emptied by someone else would be ideal. However if you really want to target these groups you should consider designing extra supportive structures or something for them to hold onto and help them get onto the toilet from a wheelchair or the floor.

Regards Lukas

Dear Lukas,

thanks so much for your precise advise. As you said, we are working close with manufacturers and learn from their experience. For their machines 1° is enough to release the parts easily from the molds, but my knowledge is that 2-3° work better, especially if we have no compressor unit for releasing. Do you have experience with deep-drawing in Zambia?
For the final production deep-drawing could be a cost-effective method and the results are of very good quality (depending on the plastics). Rotational moulding is a good option too, but the initial costs for molds are much higher than for deep-drawing. So the final method will relate on the scale of the production.

To add additional support for people with disabilities is very important too. Our idea is to design a railing fitted to the place where MoSan will be used. Either fixed to a wall or a mobile version standing on the ground.

It is really nice to hear that you confirm our ideas and concepts from your point of view and your experience in Zambia. For which organization are you working? MoSan could be a great solution for peri-urban areas as well Please stay in touch!

Best, Mona

Dear Mona,

Im currently working in the GIZ water program in Zambia and my current task is to design a latrine for people with disabilities in Sambia. I am a Product Design Engineer and I have a little experience with deep drawing from projects in University but non in Africa or Zambia.

I tried to upload some videos of people with disability in the peri-urban areas here, that might help but it doesnt seem to work. So if you give me an email address i can try to send them to you.


Cheers,

Lukas

Great! I would love to get an insight in current habits in Zambia. Please upload the video on an external server, like www.ge.tt or in your public dropbox folder and post the links, so the SuSanA community can also watch the videos

Many thanks!

hi Lukas,
I'll be in Zambia soon on a short term mission for the GIZ water programme out in Chipata looking at rural sanitation. I'd be interested in hearing what progress you may have made so far. Please mail me at bracken@aht-group.com.
Thanks.
Patrick

Hi Mona,

I think it might be helpful to consider the types of disabilities shown when designing a supportive structure for the people with disability. In some cases people that normally use wheelchairs crawl around on all fours since the houses are to cramped or the floors to uneven to use a wheel chairs. This means they will have to get up on the Mosan toilet from the floor.

Hope this helps

Cheers,

Lukas

Dear readers,

we are finally producing the long-awaited prototypes. Last week the mold for the main pot was milled, the seat is in production right now. On Thursday we will deep-draw the first prototype made from durable ABS plastics. All parts will have different wall-thicknesses to optimize stability, weight and costs. The lid will be produced in the end, after we tested the stability of the seat and the main pot. It could be necessary to chose thicker plastic sheets for deep-drawing and this will affect the size of the lid.

As a "sneak preview" here a picture of the CAD draft.
If you are wondering where the side-handles are: the outer edge between seat and main pot is big enough to grab the toilet and carry it easily.

Dear readers,

please check out the MoSan blog for first results from deep-drawing with thermoplastics! The day at the workshop was great and the results are amazing. I am very happy we took the time to change the process from manual laminating to deep-drawing. With the new way of production the design was optimized:
- all parts are stackable
- surfaces are smooth and easy to clean
- measurements are optimized regarding ergonomic feedback
- simplifications for easier production

Cant wait to hear your feedback!

Best,
Mona





mosan-bangladesh.tumblr.com

Looks great so far, and I see you lowered the interior a bit for male users

Quick remarks:
-Color should definitely be looked into, a light yellow or brown is probably the best.
-How much weight does the new bottom withstand? It looks quite flexible, so there might be a risk of the top slipping partially into it, when uneven pressure is applied from the top.
- I see the grips at the sides where cut from the design... I guess since it will be mostly the containers inside that are moved, that isn't such a big issue, but the mobility inside the house is definitely lowered by that.
-can you post pictures of the lid? I think since this is partially an innovation for the disabled and elderly, special care needs to be taken designing the grip so that it can be used without help. Edit: the easiest for that would probably be the option to attach an additional wire hook to it somehow, which can then be formed for the best usability individually. So two solid flanges which can be drilled for holes to hold the wire would probably be best.

P.S.: If you are interested in a pilot of the new design in urban Kampala (Uganda) we could probably arrange for it. Here in Kampala there are also PE production capacities, so it could be locally produced (if one comes up for funding to make the molds).

Dear Julius,

great, many thanks for your feedback and offering your support for piloting the toilet in Uganda. We should definitely discuss this further by email and skype! Please let me know your email address.

Regarding your remarks,
- Weight: we stressed the toilet (main pot+seat) with 130kg at the workshop. The seat bends slightly and goes directly back to its initial shape. PE has the great property that it is more flexible than brittle. Which means, it is very difficult to break it. I tested this by throwing the toilet on concrete ground, the reaction was, the toilet just "jumped" away without any damage.
- Since the shape of the seat is angled and becomes wider till the edges, the weight distributes evenly and the seat doesn't slip inside the main pot.

- Handles: It is right, the two side handles were removed for several reasons (simpler molds=easier demolding=cheaper production) But instead I designed the outer edge between seat and main pot big enough to work perfectly as a all round handle. This means, even if the toilet is placed at a very narrow space you can lift the toilet from all sides, without being limited to 2 handles. This is meant to add mobility than lowering it!

- Lid: The lid is in production this week. On Friday I can post more pictures! Thanks for this advise. We are currently discussing with GIZ in Zambia to test the MoSan toilet with people with disabilities.

- Colour: The colour is caused by production and not chosen on purpose. White (called "nature") is the most common colour of PE and also the cheapest. All other colours, like black or blue are inked by pigments and are more expensive. If we produce more than 10 prototypes it is of course possible to order colored plastics, but so far it is not feasible. My preferred colour is still a blue-turquoise, since I think it communicates cleanliness, freshness and nature at once



all the best,
Mona

Hello Mona,

Your toilet appearance and design is very unique! It should be very good in many places. Thanks to this forum for bringing those concerned with seeking simple sanitation together.

Regarding design perfecting as another poster said, the bowl should be deep enough so males sitting on the toilet don't have a problem with skin contact inside the bow. On the toilets I have been devolving this has been an issue, and I simply had to make the bowl deeper than I first thought. It is rare, yet it also happens that the water level in a normal flush stools is too high, and males do not appreciate the resulting physical contact with the water.

In my development it also has been a challenge to put the urine feces divider as the right place. That is to put it back far as possible to intercept as much urine as possible, yet still forward far enough so feces do not end up on the urine pan.

One of the toilets I have been working on is quite a bit like yours (although not as attractive). One difference is that I employ a gate that covers the feces compartment, and which only needs opened for defecating. Admitted this feature has both pro and cons. The cons being a gate needs opened to defecate, and the bowl cannot be quite as nicely rounded. Yet it has the advantage of additional sanitation, as the solid waste area is additionally obstructed and can even remain obstructed when one needs to merely urinate. The gate cuts greatly cuts the odor, while using a minimum of covering material. Another vital advantage of the gate is that more urine is intercepted and less enters the feces area. This also saves mess and covering material and space in the feces container. I believe I can get up to a 98 percent average urine interception with my toilet with the gate. The only time it does not intercept all the urine is when females use it with the gate open for defeceting, then some urine is not interecepted.

You possibly could make one model with a gate and one without. Feel free copy my design in anyway you wish. My aim is to help people and help bring better sanitation to those who need it. You can see one of my toilet designs with a gate at this link. forum.susana.org/forum/categories/34-uri...on-bucketmate-toilet . www.exnapo.com shows many others.

Blessings
Amos Bender

@Mona: You can reach me via This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it (Ich spreche ebenfalls deutsch). UWASNET could link you up with local NGO/CBOs working in urban slum areas and facilitate the process. However, as a local Ugandan NGO network we do not have a lot of financial means available to directly support this interesting project.