PS -- Regarding prefabricated structures, although they can be invaluable in emergency situations and for providing sanitary services for large temporary gathering and settlements, from my own experience, I think one should proceed with considerable caution in permanent settlements. As with housing, if the structures are not made with locally available materials or can be repaired with local skills, the aging or damaged structures will soon be abandoned and left as unrecyclable solid waste. The doors and the hinges, as well as the stairs, are among the most vulnerable parts and the first to go. Prefabricated solutions that are bought in virtually 100% from the outside, also discourage any spontaneous local replication.

Dear Ecolleagues,

We appreciate the interest that this post has generated. Nevertheless since these sorts of global discussions can have unexpected consequences at national and local levels, I think it would be useful to set the record straight on a number of issues.

Several months ago Elisabeth, on behalf of GIZ/SuSanA, asked us to assist her in compiling this information on Mexican Ecosan projects for the her global data base. From the beginning we were clear that Mexico is an enormous country with one of the longest histories of dry toilet programs and that it would be difficult to do a comprehensive investigation. All the more so since this was being done on a voluntary basis, which in the end required a considerable amount of uncompensated staff time. We also stated that we would have to limit our research to non-governmental programs, as an extensive investigation of government dry toilet programs would be very time consuming and costly with limited likelihood of generating reliable information.

Indeed at one point, we made a concerted attempt to obtain data from one of the major government institutions, but the information we finally received was useless for our purposes.

There are a range of UDDT toilet seats --and toilets-- on the market in Mexico, including ceramic (principally ANFORA), fiberglass (of which IEPSA is the largest producer), as well as more decentralized fiberglass and cement options such as those promoted by CITA. Over the past more than 15 years there have been numerous government financed supply-driven dry toilet programs designed to provide low-cost (often no-cost) dry toilet options to primarily rural users. Unfortunately, due to a lack of adequate information, education, demand generation, user choice and training in appropriate use and maintenance, it is generally recognized that these toilets are frequently misused --or never used- and abandoned and, indeed, have generally given a bad name to ecosan. Since these toilets have been disseminated through a variety of programs with diverse criteria, with varying levels of subsidy , it is probably quite incorrect to refer to "free UDDTs" as stated in the discussion group title! (In fact, Soeren Rued, GIZ/Mexico, in a separate communication to Elisabeth some time ago basically stated the same, as I have above, about the top down government programs.)

Finally, we repeat that the IEPSA is not a program, but rather a factory that has been producing a product(s) for primarily government clients and we are grateful to them for having provided the information that we reported in our survey.

Perhaps our greatest concern in this case, is the generally lack of adequate monitoring of not only ecosan programs, but of sanitation systems in general. Mexico, as with many countries int in the region have unrealistically high official coverage figures, which should not be so surprising if they are counting toilets installed rather than toilets functioning and in use! So I certainly agree with Elisabeth that it would be very useful to carry out an additional study to document better what has actually happened with this enormous number of toilets involved. If anyone is prepared to fund the evaluation (?), we would be happy coordinate the research. We have good relationships with both ANFORA and IEPSA and if approached correctly I have no doubt that they would cooperate.

Best regards,

Dear all,

in reply to Enno: Elmer meant Philippine Pesos (funny that Mexico and Philippines uses the same currency name; is this a Spanish legacy just like dollar in many other countries?). The project which he mentioned has already been described in more detail under the heading of WG 8 - emergency sanitation (I have now moved it to the category "sanitation for special conditions"). You can find it here on the forum:
forum.susana.org/forum/categories/67-san...wand-on-use-of-uddts

It would be best if you repeat your questions to Elmer there, so that we don't mix up the project from the Philippines and the one from Mexico in the same thread.

By the way, those mobile toilets from Elmer are very interesting. You can see more photos of them here:
www.flickr.com/photos/gtzecosan/sets/721...081/with/6725592177/

To Fabiola: I don't quite understand why you say "there is no way of knowing"? There may never be exact figures but surely it must be possible to collect rough estimates. Which government departments paid for these UDDTs and would they not have an interest to track if their expenditure was worthwhile?

Actually I just saw in the list that these government departments were mentioned:

Institute of Public Health of the State of Guanajuato, State Health Services, Ministry of Social Development Delegation Baja California Sur, State Commission of Agua de Zacatecas, Secretary of Social Development of Jalisco, Municipality of Ocampo Michoacán

Could they perhaps be contacted and asked if they have any evaluation reports on these UDDTs?

Would be a nice project for a Spanish-speaking intern or MSc student to investigate this further and to publish the results....
I just can't imagine that 350,000 UDDTs could be spread all over the country and be unnoticed (unless the company IEPSA exaggerated the figures).

Do we have any other users from Mexico on this forum by the way?

Regards,
Elisabeth

I also would figure there must have a lack of ownership caused by no financial contributions, no choice of product and so on... Furthermore some user might value the durability and permanence of structures. Here the fiber glass material looks fragile and also the white colours stands out so much that it might hamper the privacy feeling.

Would be great to have a proper evaluation of this project at hand.

Cheers
Christian

Just to clarify things Elmer, are you talking about Mexican Pesos? Somehow I do not come to the amount of 142 EUR (calculated based on the 8000 pesos you indicated).

Where do you apply your toilet model?
How do you care about the capacity building?
What is the financing model behind it?
And what is the project behind it?

Can you give some information?

Best regards,
Enno

The figure 350000 free UDDT may be too high, I suppose...my question is, is there thorough capacity-building for the users before these UDDT's were installed? This type of toilet is not the "flush and forget" type and there should be motivation and capacity-building.

Mobile, portable solution offers the advantage of ease in transfer if by and large, the original user would no longer want to use it. In our case the price is 8,000 pesos (or Euro 142)...in disaster situation, they can just be "folded-up" and installed/transferred where the survivors are...

Dear Elisabeth, dear Fabiola (good to be in touch again!),

this is not a good example of creating ownership... I agree.

However, I like the idea of prefabricated and also mobile toilets. The price given by Elisabeth is around 8000 Pesos (around 465 EUR). Is this for the whole unit (two boxes, slab and superstructure)?

As Elisabeth asked, is any documentation of the project available?

Thanks and saludos,
Enno

As stated by Micaela Bocanegra, a Sarar colleague, about how many of these units are actually in use:

"La cobertura está dada en los números de muebles que reparten y no los que están en funcionamiento... cuántos no hay tirados... la gente los recibió porque los regalaron, no porque la gente estuviera convencida para usar ese sistema...no hay manera de saber."

"Coverage is given by numbers of toilet units that are distributed and not by the functioning ones... how many of them haven´t we seen discarded... the people received them because they were given to them, not because the people were convinced to use the system... there is no way of knowing."

Dear all,

While updating our worldwide ecosan project list (now available here: Link to worldwide ecosan project list ), I came across this project in Mexico which caught my attention.

It is called: Prefabricated ecological toilets modules in rural areas (large-scale). According to the supplier, 350,000 of these pretty, white fibreglass UDDTs were set up in rural areas of Mexico, which means there could be now about 1.75 million users of these!?

Here is the impressive 8-minute evideo about this technology (you can skip the first half minute):



Our Mexican colleagues from SARAR say, however, that these UDDTs are not being used or used to a much smaller extent. Does anyone know about these UDDTs in Mexico??

This is what Ron Sawyer and Fabiola Garduno told me:

Most of the time, the users pay nothing for it; therefore, they do not use them properly or leave it. The lesson learned is that it should be promoted that the beneficiary family should pay a percentage of the cost of the module, to achieve ownership. IEPSA IS A FACTORY THAT PRODUCES PREFABRICATED FIBERGLASS PRODUCTS INCLUDING UDDTS --and arborloo structures as well as urinals--, that supplies mostly government projects all over the country. There is no assurance that their clients have adequate addressed the essential social and training requirements of a successful program.

Below you see what we now put into the project list (sorry about the formatting, you could also view it in the attached file):



This could be a perfect example of lacking end user engagement?? Toilet given away for free and users are not interested?? Or maybe the project is going better than we think, but it just hasn't been publicised much?

Regards,
Elisabeth

++++++++++++++++++++
Mexico
Prefabricated ecological toilets modules in rural areas (large-scale)
"Supply of prefabricated bathhouses of fibreglass toilets to the government (includes short training of bathhouses assembly, use and maintenance)
Private supply
"
Communities of Chiapas, Guerrero, Veracruz, Tamaulipas, Guanajuato, Baja california Sur, Zacatecas, Jalisco, Michoacan and Morelos.
"Yautepec-La Nopalera road Km.1 No.10
Colonia Campo Grande
C.P. 62730, Yautepec, Morelos, Mexico"
1996
1996-2011 in the different projects approximately 350,000 prefabricated modules of urine diverting toilets have been installed
IEPSA provide prefabricated toilets’ bathhouses. Once they are on-site, there is a brief training on how to assemble them, how to use them and how to maintain the system.
262500
297,500 modules supplied, helping 1,487,500 people. 35,000 modules supplied and installed, helping 175,000 people. 17,500 private modules supplied, helping 87,500 people. Total of modules supplied 350,000. (are these numbers referring to specific years?) How many are still in use now??
Rural, peri-urban
Institute of Public Health of the State of Guanajuato, State Health Services, Ministry of Social Development Delegation Baja California Sur, State Commission of Agua de Zacatecas, Secretary of Social Development of Jalisco, Municipality of Ocampo Michoacán
In most of the cases the governmental institutions, in other cases with support from the community
World Bank in Chiapas and Guerrero, Guanajuato, in the frame of the EXTENSION OF SUPPLY PROGRAM, (P.A.C.)
Rural communities where there are no sewage system and potable water supply. IEPSA only provides the equipment but does not have a social component that trains users on appropriate use and maintenance. The government programs (which allocate funds to purchasing these prefabricated units) pay IEPSA for delivering the product onsite, but it is the government program that gives out these units for free to final users.
The general recommendation in every case is to bury the residues for the safety of the users
Fiberglass modules with urine diverting seat.
The price of the projects varies according to the number of toilets installed in the communities $8,084.00 MXP + vat.
The prefabricated toilet SANISECO-IEPSA® is designed taking into consideration the comfort of the user from the time of delivery, installation and during use and management since the characteristics of its production offers: light weight and durable components. The bathhouse has a door, canopy and perimeter ventilation and 4 anchor-shaped legs to ensure secure fixation. The door has aluminum hinges and galvanized bolts. A stainless steel screw set is also supplied for assembly of the bathhouse.
"Most of the time, the users pay nothing for it; therefore, they do not use them properly or leave it. The lesson learned is that it should be promoted that the beneficiary family should pay a percentage of the cost of the module, to achieve ownership. IEPSA IS A FACTORY THAT PRODUCES PREFABRICATED FIBERGLASS PRODUCTS INCLUDING UDDTS --and arborloo structures as well as urinals--, that supplies mostly government projects all over the country. There is no assurance that their clients have adequate addressed the essential social and training requirements of a successful program.
"
www.iepsacv.com.mx/
Hector Flores Miranda
Information requested from organizations and summarized by Sarar Transformation, Sc for GIZ 2011. Added by EvM after translation by Jenny Aragundy; the information (in Spanish) was supplied by Ron Sawyer (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.)