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

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

See:

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.


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

Hey everyone,
thanks for the many replys and for exchanging knowledge. It's great to gather information and raise awareness to this important topic!
There is a small company in Frankfurt that offers toilets for festivals:
www.nowato.de

Another great concept comes from the UK: www.thunderboxes2go.co.uk/
And some Swiss people are also researching and improving their compost loos: www.kompotoi.ch/

I'll keep you all updated about our project, the public vote ends today and a jury will decide about another 2.000 Euro friday afternoon. Our (one-take) video has been watched almost 2000 times on YouTube within a week and we definitely wanna get artists and musicians involved in the future.

Let's push things forward
Malte

Hi everyone. Hamish here from Natural Event. Well where to start.. I have worked on over 300 events in six countries and have in fact pioneered the whole large scale gathering of crap. I started at my own festival in 2000 and quickly moved to the biggest festivals in Australia. We would be responsible for over 10 million uses of the composting loos over the years and counting. We have worked as the sole provider of toilets for small to medium festivals - upto to 20,000 people, and been the most popular choice when not sole provider for massive festivals - 60k - 200,000 people. We bring dignity back to the loo and also use music and art to showcase the change in paradigm we are implementing.

We have specialised in both mobile temporary set ups and also permanent blocks for festivals who own the land or know they are coming back each year.

My background is in Environmental Chemistry from RMIT in Melbourne

I knew from day one that what we ere doing would have international relevance for festivals but also for communities in both acute and chronic need.

There is a very strong link between festivals and camp sanitation when you focus on toilets.

Natural Event has revolutionised the experience for festival patrons and also for organisers. We have six designs of toilets in use - Four adult flat packing systems, two flat packing kids loos, and two trailers - one with 30 loos on and one with 8 for extremely rapid deployment and ability to -'folow the crowd'

Our aims are to take this experience and make some impact on the community sector.

I have has experience in Haiti and wil be bringing a young star of Haitian sanitation to UK and EU this summer to further his training and experiences and also to show case his work, as well as to raise money for his projects.

In fact we have more jobs and opportunities for people and are looking at starting more branches and consultancy work.

PLease have a look at


www.facebook.com/naturalevent
www.facebook.com/pootopia and
www.naturalevent.com

Hamish Skermer runs mobile composting toilets for festivals and events in Europe and Australia - web site etc is Natural Event. Might be worth a look. He has also advised in Haiti where Soil are installing composting toilets.

Dear Malte,

All the best! I have forwarded the link to my friends on facebook. Will we have the chance to read your master thesis on new alternative sanitation systems?

Best regards,

Doreen

Hey SuSana Board Members!
my name is Malte Schremmer, a geography student from Kiel and i've spent the past 6 months writing my thesis about composting toilets and new alternative sanitation systems. Recently my university offered an idea competition and grants 1000 Euro for the winner of the public vote. I convinced many of my surroundings to join the crew and push the idea of dry toilets forward.
What we do: We want to spread the concept of composting toilets on german music festivals because we believe in the power of a paradigm shift once a critical mass is reached. festivals are the best place to start.
we need these 1000 euro to finance the first prototypes of mobile, flatpacking, dry toilets. We would highly appreciate if you could share the following link on your timeline and ask the people to vote for "Goldeimer - Komposttoiletten auf Festivals" by giving a "Like / Empfehlen" on the website. #We give a shit! Please support us.
www.yooweedoo.org/wettbewerb/

Kind regards and greets currently from the andalusian desert in spain,
Malte

Dear Juergen,

I would like to point out the work of Excloosive in Kenya.

Excloosive is a private business in Nairobi. It offers private sanitation services in social gatherings e.g. in weddings, festivals, exhibitions, agricultural shows, government functions etc. The toilets are provided in three cost categories i.e. executive, standard and economy.

The sludge from these toilets are transported and discharged into sewer manholes. For more information, please visit their website: www.excloosive.co.ke/

Best regards,

Doreen

Under this new topic, I'd like to pool all activists and entrepreneurs who have in the past provided or are planing to provide special (mobile) toilets for use in festivals (e.g. open air concerts) and other events that require the provision of proper sanitary facilities.

Afaik, festival toilets have been installed in France and Sweden so far and I know of this group (in German) www.yooweedoo.org/ideenwettbewerb-kiel-2...letten-auf-festivals (5 students from Kiel in Germany) who is currently trying to come up with its own version.

Another example (via Enno, thx):
www.naturalevent.com.au/

..10 years experience in the Event Industry in Australia and 5 years in UK & Europe – Installation, management and servicing of temporary Composting Toilet and Urinal facilities.

Could we please crowdsource a list of (festival toilet) activists or even entrepreneurs who are already active in this field? I agree with the aforementioned group of students that there is a huge need for sustainable sanitation (approaches) on festivals, and believe that we're only at the very beginning of it. It could also start with the provision of more waterless urinals.
Thank you!