Hi!

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

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!

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

Kind regards,

Vishwanath

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

Thanks, Vishwanath!

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

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

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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