@MichaelCarr
Thanks for sharing. This is so simple and smart!

@Ashabrn
The MoSan is designed to be used in private households. With the current inner containers up to 6 people can use it with a twice-a-week-collection service. But the number of users can be increased and the times of collection can be reduced by providing multiple containers which are replaced by users themselves. Containers are closed and stored till the collector comes and provides new ones.
The reuse und recycling options are diverse and can be chosen depending on local demand and infrastructure. In August I collaborated with Sanivation to test the production of a solid biofuel from treated feces. Feces can also be added to biogas plants or to composting facilities, if the infrastructure and expertise is available.
More details about the service are described in our latest report: ISSUU Link

Many thanks for all your advise and feedback. I was quite busy the last two weeks and didn't find the time to answer before, but Im back with great news:
MoSan won the first prize of the Bestform Design Award in Germany!
More news on the MoSan Blog

@canaday
Wow Chris. I havn't heard of the odor-absorbing ability of treated feces yet. This sounds amazing. Especially in areas where people use ash for other purposes, the willingness to throw it inside the toilet could be much lower. And sawdust most probably adds cost, since there are few places to get it for free.
Do you think the feces need to be composted or would dried (sterilized) feces do the same job?

Regarding point 3. I totally agree, cutting PET bottles could save hardware cost and they are available around the planet. The only problem is, that cutted bottles are difficult to close and don't provide the necessary safety and trust to people. How would you close it for transport?
One idea could be to test transparent PET containers on the solar concentrator, but not for transport. I will suggest it to Sanivation.

What a great idea to use the MoSan as a first solution for schooling! I think the introduction of MoSan makes most sense if there is no space and regulation to built proper facilities or if users lack mobility to use one of those facilities. Introducing the MoSan as a pre-solution before UDDTs are built is another great idea. Thanks for sharing!

Currently no prototypes are left, but in December I am planning the further production with the manufacturer. Please get in touch with me: design (at) mona-mijthab.com

@christoph
Yes you are totally right, this doubt is very alarming at this stage. It still seems to be the hardest part of the research to find out what people are able and willing to pay. Peoples income in Naivasha is unstable and varied a lot. The fact that access to sanitation is included in the housing rent made it difficult to talk about cost with people. On the other hand this could be an opportunity to collaborate with the landlord.
It would be great to involve someone with an economics background to carry out a survey.

All the best,
Mona

Hi Mona, this technology is impressive and relatively unique.
From the outside look, it seem a single user option. Can it be shared? Please correct me if wrong. I also miss out on sludge management after using the toilet.
Thank you!

Hi Mona: have you ever heard of a Fresnel Lens? Here is a link to one that uses a plastic sheet and water to generate free energy and costs pennies.



best regards
Mike
ecolsolutions.com

Hi Mona,
very interesting report, congratulations. I don´t have any doubt about the technical aspects. For me the economics and financial aspects – especially the payment for the service are the main concerns for sustainability. I am sure all of you involved are thinking a lot about these aspects. You mentioned some doubts about

paying on a regular basis could be a barrier

.
I think this is very alarming and it is a doubt I have about your concept or all other concepts which involve a weekly collection service. I think it would be good to organize some sort of exchange of cost data between the different concepts. A lot of the costs only appear if really implanted, so it would be a very large help for everybody to have better cost data, even though they are gained in different countries – maybe it could be a task for one of the organizations to lead this and to provide the data on an internal basis to all participants? And hopefully a report later on on a consolidated base?

Just some ideas.
Yours Christoph

Hi Mona,

Congratulations on this very interesting trial that you did with Sanivation in Kenya.

There is a problem with the PDF, with much of the text being jumbled. Nonetheless, the great photos came through and enough text to get the general idea.

Comments and suggestions:

1) Urine could be dispersed in the soil immediately via perforated hoses buried 10 cm in the soil (with sand around the hose, if the soil is too clayey.) Graywater (for example, from dishwashing) could be added with each use to control smell and dilute the urine in the soil. Fruit trees, grass to feed animals, etc., could be planted where the hose goes and experience will show which do best under these conditions. (Comfrey can reportedly handle large amounts of urine.)

2) The processed ex-feces are likely better for covering smell than ashes, at least that is my experience here. This likely inoculates the new feces with the beneficial soil microbes that can withstand the sanitizing but not sterilizing temperatures of Sanivation's solar ovens (for example, fungal spores and bacterial endospores).

I quote myself from an online interview
(www.chekhovskalashnikov.com/human-waste-disposal/):
"Another good reason to use the finished compost as cover material is that it filters odors much more efficiently than most other materials, removing and breaking down up to 99% of volatile organic compounds (see the EPA link in the interview).

It has also been shown to eliminate 75% of the reduced sulfur compound emissions that most contribute to the characteristic aroma of shit
(en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feces#Odor)
in a laboratory study of conditions similar to those of commercial composting operations (Büyüksönmez et al. 2012,
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23362761 ),
and up to 97% of the stench from landfills (Hurst et al. 2005
cat.inist.fr/?aModele=afficheN&cpsidt=16548526 )"

I have yet to find studies that compare the odor-absorbing ability of compost to that of ash or sawdust, but it would be interesting to do such a study by observing flies and/or dogs.

3) You may like to test cut-off 6-liter disposable PET plastic water bottles (which are at least common here in Ecuador) as containers for the feces, as these would allow for more direct penetration of solar energy, including sanitizing UV.

4) One important application of MoSan could be as a test for beneficiaries of projects to build more permanent and elegant UDDTs, to confirm that they understand the concept and are able to use them properly, thus reducing the incidence of abandonment and misuse.

5) We would be glad to test MoSan at the Omaere Ethnobotanical Park (omaere.wordpress.com), where some of the housing for collaborators is a bit of a walk from our UDDTs.

Best wishes,
Chris Canaday

Hello everyone,

we just finished the Karagita pilot report about the 4-weeks test of a closed-loop sanitation service including 5 MoSan toilets and Sanivation solar treatment. Karagita is an informal peri-urban settlement just outside Naivasha in Kenya.

It was an amazing month! Emily Woods and Hana Lokey from Sanivation are great partners! In a very limited timeframe we were able to set up a comprehensive service, starting at household level with the MoSan toilet; including schoolings for users; a collection service by motorcycle, done by a very motivated local; set up of a treatment site with Sanivation solar concentrators and we started a cooperation with a local briquette workshop run by disabled people from the community.

Within these 4 weeks, we got a deep understanding of peoples behaviors, fears and hopes and learned a lot about our service. I am very happy to share our report and our learnings with you. And we are very keen to hear your feedback and your ideas. (the 4.4MB file is attached to this post)

One thing that surprised me most, was the motivation and the commitment of inhabitants in Karagita. People were so motivated to work with us, to support us, to learn from us and in return to share their knowledge with us. We met many people who are active volunteers in the community, attend self-help groups or started a communal bank between neighbors to help each other in difficult times. To work with such dedicated people made our month so successful and gratifying.

In my last week in Kenya we organized a focus group discussion to bring everyone together and share their experiences among each other. We heard stories about the benefits of using a private toilet at home, that people with limited mobility were able to enjoy going to the toilet, that children stopped open defecation, that women felt more secure at night and that people started eating and drinking after 5pm.. It was very inspiring for us to hear all this feedback and of course also suggestions for improvements of our service and products.

It made me more than happy, that a simple solution like a toilet can change so much!
I cant wait to discuss with you!

All the best.
Mona

Dear SuSanA Readers!

We have amazing news: Six MoSan toilets are now in Naivasha/ Kenya for piloting. Sanivation is kindly supporting the initiative!
If you are interested to see the toilets, the Sanivation solar technology and the sanitation system running, please get in touch with us. I will be on the ground in August and Im more than happy to share our experiences with you!

See you soon!
Mona

Dear Mona and team of Sanivation,

Thank you for the effort you made to promote the pilot concept of mobile toilets with a aspirational sanitation service. I really hope it can be tested and piloted by interested organisations. It is an open source concept and design as this is the policy of GIZ. Since there is now a great expertise by you Mona and Andrew, Emily and Hana it would be great to see the concept moving to the next level.

Best regards,
Christian

Please have a look at our service overview!
We are happy to answer your questions and explain our ideas more in detail!

All the best and have a great day!
Mona





Download the PDF:

Note by moderator: This is the continuation of another thread on the MoSan toilets which you can find here: forum.susana.org/forum/categories/52-mob...-mosan-toilet-design

And before that, we discussed MoSan in Bangladesh in this thread:
forum.susana.org/forum/categories/52-mob...n-poor-in-bangladesh

++++++++
Hello everyone,

its been a while since I talked to you...
By now 10 prototypes are in Eschborn at the GIZ headquarters and are only waiting to be shipped and piloted!
Since we also have the molds ready, we can produce more prototypes in very short time!

The prototyping process was sometimes tricky and we had to experiment with materials and cooling time. But now the results are almost perfect and we can't wait to give the toilets to users. We are currently improving the "external-urine-collection" scenario. Where urine can be piped into an external collection container or to a sandbed. Also we designed a sanitation service together with the team of SANIVATION and included more reuse options for faeces (fertilizer, biogas, charcoal, briquettes) to meet user needs better.
For more details and pictures, please also have a look at our Tumblr blog .

I'm very happy to work with the SANIVATION team. Their solar concentrator technology (which kills pathogens in faeces in less than 5 hours) adds more safety and more options to the ecological sanitation service. Actually I can't wait to set up the complete service and to get peoples feedback!

So if you or your organization is interested to cooperate with us, please get in touch!

We are looking forward to hear from you!

Mona

Christian Rieck (GIZ) and the Sanivation Team (Andrew Foote, Emily Woods, Hana Lokey)