Hi Kevin,

Thank you for your valuable questions.

Please refer to the newer more detailed message below.

Thank you!

Hi Imad,

thanks for your post and presenting your solution.

I don´t really understand how your toilet system works. On your website you state this:

"The solid waste will be treated by our special formulated bacterial culture, which eventually will turn into ashes, killing all the pathogens."

1) What is that bacterial culture? Why do you need more bacteria, since there is already a lot of bacteria inside the feces.
2) How can it turn into ashes? Do you have an incineration process inside the toilet?
3) Do you have some test results and prove that this process is killing all the pathogens? How does this "killing" process work?

Thanks!
Kevin

Hello Kevin,

We'd be happy to help you with your project.

We installed our sustainable toilets at UNESCO World Heritage Sites namely Dibbeen Forest Reserve, Wadi Rum Reserve and Petra Archaeological Park (PAP) in Jordan purchased by UNDP. Some are at very high altitude (600 and 1200 steps above the ground). ECOLOO is a dry toilet technology but water can still be used for hygiene and cleaning purposes. It has 1 single hole, and the end product is only liquid fertilizer full of nutrients. No removal of solid waste needed.

Our sustainable toilets project in Jordan together with UNDP for the UNESCO World Heritage Site “PETRA” contributed to the success of the project that aimed to promote biodiversity conservation in tourism sector, and that was highlighted in the Jordan Times: www.jordantimes.com/news/local/project-a...ation-tourism-sector

Our toilets serve roughly around 3000 visitors/day (over 1 million per year) producing some 20 litres of concentrated liquid fertiliser/unit/day. It's well known that Jordan is considered No.2 in the world when it comes to water scarcity & the situation is getting worse due to the Syrian crisis.

Should you need any further details please don't hesitate to contact us.

Thank you!

Hi Dean,

thanks for your response. I thought the last days about a similar system, using the effluent to irrigate trees or kitchen plants. If there is enough space I could also think about having an evaporation bed made out of stainless steel in between with an overflow at the end. Through this, some of the volume could be reduced. If the volume of liquids is too high maybe even a sand filter could be used to enhance the quality of the water before discharging it. Inside the toilet there should be a removable box with a mechanical filtration to collect the feces + cover material. Maybe by adding the cover material and having a proper ventilation, it´ll be dry enough to keep flies away and compost the solid matter afterwards.

I didn´t thought of the vermicomposting part, thanks for adding this idea.

Do you have a case study for one of the African projects you mentioned?

Best
Kevin

Hi Kevin, I'm surprised that nobody has responded to your post, this sounds very interesting. I don't know much about waterless toilets, but perhaps you could consider using handwash water for low flush toilets, vermifiltration to remove solids and then re-using nutrients on-site by irrigating trees with the primary-treated effluent. This system has been used for some time in Africa...
cheers
Dean

Hi,

my organization Non-Water Sanitation e.V. is working in Pune/India and got queries from the city administration to build public toilets. Although we are happy to help in this regard, because public toilets are usually in bad conditions in Indian cities, we struggle a bit to come up with an ecological concept. I hope I can get some referals or advice from this forum:

1) We would like to build water-less toilets, which don´t use water for flushing and can recover the nutrients (EcoSan toilets). In the rural areas we build toilets with 3 holes in the squatting pan (urine, solid matter, anal-cleansing water) within a UDDT. This concept however doesn´t work in a public context in my opinion, because it is too complicated without any training and misuse can be expected.

2) I know that there are a few technologies that can separate water from nutrients on site. However these rely on electricity, which is in some places not guaranteed because of blackouts, are hi-tech, and expensive in investment and maintenance. I would prefer a low-tech, reliable process.

3) I would also like to think about alternatives to biogas plants or "bio-digesters". These still rely on water and are not reliable because parts tend to wear out quickly or break.

Currently I am not aware of any solution/project that can cover these criteria in areas where people use water for anal cleansing. I hope you can help me in this regard.

Best
Kevin