Hi Shray,
We are manufacturer of Mobile Toilet made of fiber reinforced plastic (FRP). We are based in Delhi but cater to demand of all over India. In the past we had also supplied container toilet to few clients. Our experience is that with container based toilet there is a mobility problem and limitation of size as containers are normally available in 20' and 40' sizes. One cannot fabricate it according to the requirement of location.

Thank you Elisabeth for your elaborate reply. I actually did sit through some of the CBS system presentations in FSM3. But, I wanted a technical and social drawback from an India perspective.
You make a good point about the human scavenging act and the expectations of a family.
I still can't believe I can find no CBS systems based in India to validate those concerns. At least not that I could find. I will point out that linked to my project, I hope to circumvent both those concerns in our pilot testing.

Thank you Alisa, I did read about your Givehope Haiti project. It looks like a good initiative. I would like to know more about your India pilot test.

Dear Alisa,
Could you please tell us more about your work (current and planned)? I am curious.

Dear Shray,
About the container based systems (also abbreviated as CBS), I would like to point you all to this page which is about a workshop held in Hanoi earlier this year on this topic:
www.susana.org/en/resources/conference-m...2/2015/262-fsm3-ws-2

Actually they called it "cartridge based systems". You see presentations there from SOIL Haiti, X-Runner, Loowatt.

There were also two presentations in the main conference program:

Assessing the effectiveness of container-based sanitation (CBS) in Cap Haitien, Haiti: Sebastien Tilmans, Stanford University, Stanford, Cal, USA
presentation: www.susana.org/images/documents/07-cap-d...3/1-3-1-2-Tilmas.pdf
Video:


or here (you need to move to time: 1h8m55s):



And:
Impacts of a container-based, household toilet and waste collection service intervention in Cap Haitien, Haiti: Kory Russell, Stanford University, Palo Alto, Cal, USA
presentation: www.susana.org/images/documents/07-cap-d...-2/2-2-1-2Russel.pdf
Video:


or (make sure you move to time: 13m5s):



I have no doubt that these container based systems can be made to work at pilot scale. We have ample examples of this by now. The question is: could they also be taken to a large scale? How could the local government or water utilities be involved in that case?

I've written about that issue also in my response to the Clean Team project in Ghana, see here:
forum.susana.org/forum/categories/52-mob...it=12&start=12#12470

Now the question is: what might be different in India compared to Haiti and Ghana with regards to container based systems?

I guess one issue you may face is the act that is prohibiting "manual scavenging" in India. We have previously discussed that here on the forum:

forum.susana.org/forum/categories/142-go...aste-scavenging#5562

This might pose a barrier for larger scale adoption of container based systems?
I am sure you have thought about that already, what are your conclusions about that issue?

And what else might be different between India and Haiti & Ghana? Perhaps a higher level of expectation by the users that they should be getting something that flushes? (as India is more of a country in transition, not so much a developing country anymore)
Just thinking out loud here. Interested to hear what you and others think.

Regards,
Elisabeth

I will be piloting a container based humanure composting in Orissa and Assam this summer. I'd live to hear from anyone who has tried this in India.

Hello All,

My name is Shray Saxena and I am a PhD student working on fecal sludge management. I hail from India and my question is whether a container based sanitation solution has ever been attempted in India? If yes, what were its drawbacks?

Thanks,
Shray Saxena