I have found a nice 1-page summary about the current status of this project in a recent report by the BMGF called "Building Demand for Sanitation - A 2015 Portfolio Update and Overview" (available here in the SuSanA library; Roshan has made a post about this report here: forum.susana.org/forum/categories/139-gr...etails-for-22-grants)





From this pdf file:

++++++++

Accomplishments to Date:

• 86 demonstration Earth Augers installed; over 50 additional
installations expected in first quarter of 2015.
• Arrangements for micro-financing household toilet purchases
should reduce cost for the user to $225-$565 (with the higher
amount including the superstructure), paid back at $10-$24
per month over a 2-year repayment period (equivalent to a
cost of $0.07 to $0.17 per user per day for a family of five).
• Several State & County Governments are interested in
the toilet; approval for the design by National Ministry of
Environment.

Key Learnings to Date:
Early products, which were partly hand-built, had reliability and
user acceptance issues and a relatively high cost. Project targets
were adjusted to provide more time for design improvements
and collect in-depth performance data and user feedback. The
business plan is currently under development, and the project
has been extended until end of 2015. Commercialization goals
are focused on the Ecuadorian market.

Lessons learnt:

• The discovery that it is possible to have plastic components
manufactured without paying the full cost for a mold (but
instead paying mold “rental charges” to the manufacturer)
transformed manufacturing options allowing the project to
stop using the low-quality hand built components.

• Testing early products at small scale and collecting user
feedback is necessary before scaling up production.

• Business models need to be based on local field data. In the
absence of reliable data, crafting a sound business plan takes
significant investment of time, effort and resources.

Next Steps:
Further efficiencies will be sought along the supply chain
to ensure sustainability, along with finding additional ways
to reduce the unit’s retail cost. As the demonstration model
moves towards production, FIT will increasingly focus on
building demand for the units by increasing the product’s
aspirational features as well as further cost reductions. FIT will
use crowdsourcing to speed up development of solutions and
identify design and manufacturing improvements. From a user
protection perspective, FIT will be seeking improved methods
for increasing (and measuring) pathogen die-off during the
composting process, and to ensure the safety of land application
of mature compost products. FIT also will collect data regarding
users’ experience including the toilet itself, as well as any
benefits gained from composting.


++++++++++

I thought this could be interesting for those following the progress of this project.

Regards,
Elisabeth

+++++++++

Further discussions about the Earth Auger toilet in different countries is available here:
forum.susana.org/forum/categories/34-uri...-and-other-countries

Pilot project with the Earth Auger toilet in South Africa:
forum.susana.org/forum/categories/34-uri...a-uddt-with-an-auger

Thanks, Vishwanath!

And we've come a long ways since RTTF India! Especially with our newly developed community system.

That is what I wanted to know. We are working on another type of dry toilet (please see the RTTC link in the signature). Your insights on bed materials are very useful to us.
Thanks you very much!
With kind regards,
Vishwanath

Hi!

I remember visiting your stall at the Toilet Fair in New Delhi. Very impressive.

Kind regards,

Vishwanath

By bed material do you mean the cover material we mix with the feces? If that's so, we can use a variety of materials - my favorite is coffee rounds, but sawdust, rice hulls, and ash will all work well if it is fine enough to go through the distributor. Otherwise anything can be put in by hand through the vertical chamber (coconut hull, etc.)

Hi!

Thanks for this. What is the bed material? Is it soil?

Kind regards,
Vishwanath

Hi Vishwanath,

Thanks!

The EA-X (Critical Practices 10th generation over the last 14 years of development!) is currently made mostly of injection molded polypropylene. The horizontal pipe is currently PVC irrigation pipe, but we'll start extrusion molding that soon as well. Then, of course, there are the screws, bolts, etc. For corrosion resistance as many of these are stainless steel as possible.

Hi!

I really like the work you have done and shared so generously. Could you share what particulate materials you used in the toilet?
Thanks!
Vishwanath

The video from Marcos' presentation at the FSM3 Conference in Hanoi in January 2015 about the progress with the Earth Auger Toilet in Ecuador (and the question and answer session afterwards) is now also available online here:


Or fast forward to time: 52 min. 14 s here:

Yes, we are definitely interested in local production - where there is significant demand and it saves money to manufacture locally and justify the tooling costs. Our approach would be to do a fairly large demonstration, then work with a company that wants to take it the next step in a country/region. We started manufacturing in China as it was less than other options we looked into, and were really fortunate in finding a group there that greatly helped us in making the manufacturing easier.

Dear all the team,

This is great to see your progresses, your new model and the low prices you managed to reach. Congratulation, I've been following you for a while and you showed that innovation is a long path. Looking forward to see how they're perceived outside ecuador.

Just for curiosity, are you working on some decentralized production, mean a way to ship molds and technical guides rather than actual products from china. Chinese production could spread all over asia and pacific for cheap though. Would local production everywhere be the next step of your development or the price difference will make it cheaper from china for a long time still ?

Wish you best of luck in your prospects, and thanks for sharing all the updates.

Ben

Our goal is to be able to have the following price structure (FOB China):
100-499 units $150USD
500-999 units $125USD
1000+ units $110USD

This is based on complete kits for the current model, with reductions of price achievable by reductions of production and handling costs with higher quantities.