Using waste to move waste (using urine to flush waste)

Purpose

Designing a device that would utilize urine to flush waste through a pour-flush (PF) toilet thus reducing or eliminating the need for scarce flush water during the dry season in developing countries

Activities

The project involved designing a device that would utilize urine to flush waste through a pour-flush (PF) toilet thus reducing or eliminating the need for scarce flush water during the dry season in developing countries. The project team hypothesized such a device would reduce the burden of fetching water from long distances during the dry-season and thus reduce the tendency for rural villagers to return to open defecation when water is scarce. They posit that the urine-flush device would encourage the use of latrines and help reduce incidents of diarrhea and other water related illness by 35%.

Countries of activity

Location of main activity

Further information

Although the Flush-Pump offers an affordable, attractive option that promotes the use of PF-toilets in the dry seasons, the team discovered that the existing PF-toilet designs being installed and widely promulgated are problematic for the following reasons: they do not offer a closed-loop sanitation system; they do not offer any means of safely removing or disposing of sludge that eventually accumulates in the septic tank rings; none of the fecal/urine nutrients are available for use as an agricultural fertilizer; although there are several NGOs promoting the sale of thousands of PF-toilets in Cambodia via sanitation marketing, none of the sanitation marketing programs are currently addressing the inability of the poorest of the poor to afford the $50 to $70 PF-toilet kits. In addition, the wet-season rains interrupted sanitation behavior change activities.

Filter tags

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation East Asia & Pacific Global Local NGO Product design and engineering Toilets or urinals (user interface)

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