2. Forty percent of the world’s population—2.5 billion
people—practice open defecation or lack adequate
sanitation facilities
2.1 billion people use toilets connected to septic tanks that
are not safely emptied or use other systems that discharge
raw sewage into open drains or surface waters.
Monday 21 October 13
3. 1.5 million child deaths from diarrhea
each year, 4000 children everyday
25% girls drop out of school
because of improper sanitation
Monday 21 October 13
62 million children under-5 are stunted and
will not reach their full physical or mental
potential.
4. When there is no privacy available for women to
urinate or defecate in home or in shelter, they are
frequent targets for sexual harassment and rape
There are always less or equal number of stalls
for women in public toilets despite knowing that
they take longer.
Monday 21 October 13
5. Everyday 200,000 tonnes of human faeces is deposited
in India : 155,000 truckloads are left in the open to be
trodden on, stepped over, lived among.
A gram of faeces can contain 10 million
viruses, 1 million bacteria, 1,000 parasite
cysts, and 100 worm eggs
50 communicable diseases can be spread
by faecal particles
Sanitation - proper disposal of human excreta can reduce diarrohea by nearly 40 %
Modern sanitation has added twenty years to
the average human life
Good sanitation is economically sensible
It is also about dignity
Monday 21 October 13
6. It contains nitrogen and phosphates that can make plants grow and also suck the life from
water because its nutrients absorb available oxygen.
It can be both food and poison. It can contaminate and cultivate.
Water gets contaminated by by excrement, and people then drink or wash in it. Or they
ingest faeces directly by the Fs.
Faeces can get into fluid and onto fields, fingers, flies and food. The goal of sanitation is to
prevent excrement from traveling from someone’s anus to someone else’s mouth by any of
these paths.
Monday 21 October 13
7. Methodology
✤
The process of human-Centered
Design starts with a specific
Design Challenge and goes
through three main phases:
Hear, Create, and Deliver.
The process will move the team from
concrete observations about people,
to abstract thinking as you uncover
insights and themes, then back to
the concrete with tangible solutions.
Monday 21 October 13
8. Design Challenge Definition
1 A system that requires
minimal input of water and
no output sewer networks.
The systems should be
tolerant to the use of water
for personal hygiene and
surface cleaning.
2 A system that is selfsustaining or net positive in
energy and water
production and usage
3 A system or technology that
is geography neutral such
that it would be sustainable
in all climatic zones across
India.
4 Provision of a toilet/lavatory
facility that is well-lit and
self-maintaining in all critical
respects, including freedom
Monday 21 October 13
from insects, odors, stains,
and unhygienic surfaces.
5 Sustained operation without
any inputting of wired-in
electricity (e.g., grid based).
6 A design that is not affected
by the effects and fate of
complementary sanitary
products entering the
system such as paper,
diapers (nappies), cloth,
sand, and other personal
hygiene products and
chemicals.
7 Reasonably prompt (tending
towards single-day time
scales) rendering of wastes
into harmless or useful
byproducts.
8 Sustainable technologies to
sanitize waste for pathogen
destruction.
9 A capital and operational
cost for the final products
(commercial units) less than
Rs.3/user/day, both for the
family and neighborhood
solutions.
10Solutions that result in
generation of products of
value (water, energy,
fertilizer), anticipating the
limited space that would be
available for on-site storage
of the products.
11 Can also develop a
business plan and link the
solution to partners that can
scale-up, manufacture and
commercialize the design.
9. Recognizing Existing Knowledge
✤
I knew practically nothing about this.
“I find this strange. Anthropologists and sociologists should be infesting public toilets.
There’s nothing else in human society quite like them. Not in society, not quite out of it.
Needed but rarely demanded. A place where all sorts of human needs and habits
intersect : fear, disgust, conversation, grooming, sex. It’s an ambiguous space that is
not quite in the public eye, though the pubic uses it. A place of refuge and sociability,;
of necessity and criminality. How we are allowed to behave in toilets even influences
everyday speech. Steven Pinker, in an exploration of taboo words, qoutes a spectrum
of excreta-related swearing. Shit is less acceptable than piss, which is less acceptable
than fart. And so on through to snot and spit, ‘which is not taboo at all. That’s the same
order as the acceptability of eliminating these substances from the body in public.’
To be uninterested in the public toilet is to be uninterested in life.”
- Rose George
Monday 21 October 13
10. Identifying People to speak with
✤
1. Urban Slum 1
“ideal constituents”: those who are successful, adopt new technologies
quickly, and/or exhibit desirable behaviors
Already have toilets and a septic tank but no connection to sewer lines,
all the waste is dumped directly through pipes into a drain that runs
through the neighbourhood, open and closed intermittently
2. Urban Slum 2
on the opposite extreme: those who are very poor, resistant to new
technologies, and/or exhibit problematic behaviors
No toilet in any of the houses and no public toilet close by. 100% open
defecation
3. Urban Slum 3
somewhere in between: represent more “average” people
Had one complex of public toilets and some houses had toilets in their
homes. Almost all women and girls used the public toilet
Rule of thirds, here.
4. A peri-urban slum just outside
campus
Some houses have toilets and some don’t. There’s
lots of space but the river is close by and open
defecation is common.
5. A Sarva Siksha Abhiyan School nearby
to check out their toilets
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11. Research Methods employed
1. Individual Interview
2. Group Interview
3. Expert Interviews
For individual/group interview :
OPEN SPECIFIC, GO BROAD, then PROBE DEEP
Objective :
Observations of well, reality and deeper understanding of needs,
barriers and constraints
Why do or don’t they have a toilet?
How do they meet their sanitation related needs?
Identifying special needs/ groups
Some basic things :
sources of livelihood
sources of information
financing model
Some techniques :
Went with a person who lives among them
Took care of language
Asked them to show me around the place and their toilets
Specified that I’m not there to give anything to them
Monday 21 October 13
Expert Interviews :
Done :
Talked to a public health officer working in U.P.
Visited the Angan Vadi office to ask about ground realities
Talked to a public health senior employee in the Gates
Foundation
Scheduled :
Phone call with a Sulabh officer
Meeting with the WHO head officer in Guwahati
12. Literature Research
✤
Read about the history of the toilet and also, the entire
cycle : containment, disposal, collection, treatment, recycle
Sanitation in different cultures and places
Currently employed techniques and their pro’s and con’s (e.g.,
dry latrines, pit latrines, septic tank etc.)
Numerous innovative products and services (e.g., Peepoo,
IDEO.org’s Clean Team, WaterAid’s Eco-san toilets, Sulabh
Suchalaya, SPARC’s Public Toilets)
Behavior change programming (e.g., implementation of
community led total sanitation and related approaches like Gram
Vikas in Orissa).
Water Closet
Septic Tank
Read the book, The Big Necessity (Adventures in the World of
Human Waste) by Rose George
which has many case studies of failed and successful
interventions in the developing world and an account of the
struggles of the developed world with this issue as well.
Existing Technologies / proposed technological solutions
Squat Plate
Monday 21 October 13
Aqua Privy
Dug Well
RCA Latrine
Bore Well
13. Observations
1. Manual Scavengers
2. Public Toilets - maintenance, lines, women, children
3. Ownership = Care
People’s homes are very clean and that seems satisfactory enough.
4. Purchase decisions are made by men even though women are the major bread
winners. Men employed seasonly/ not reliably. These decisions are mostly short-term.
It is possible to save money though but not easy/ convenient.
5. ‘Toiletlessness is not always about poverty...It’s a whole mental thing.’
6. No real treatment solution yet. Even those who do have toilets, the waste goes
directly to the drains.
7. Location of bathroom within the house and why they are not used.
8. Lots of people live in illegal temporary homes and they are loath to spend on the
infrastructure even though they’ve been living in the same place for 20 years now.
9. Old, sick, pregnant, everyone has to do it in the inconvenient way, no exceptions.
10. Using public toilets is embarrassing
11. Disgust, shame and pride
12. People want flush toilets
and more..
Monday 21 October 13
Girls toilet at the nearby
government school
14. Case Study : SPARC
The Fine Points of Community Toilet Design
TOILETS AT CENTRAL LOCATIONS
In the NSDF model, community toilets are not isolated "dirty places", but intentionally built in central, "nodal" locations
and combined with community gathering spaces, so use is automatically monitored, and upkeep is tied to the
usability of these spaces.
SEPARATION OF MEN’S AND WOMEN’S TOILETS
In the Government model, the toilets face each other across a central space, without any separation of men's and
women's toilets. This leads to hassling of women, lack of privacy, arguments about cleanliness. The NSDF/MM model
is organized with two separate, back-to-back lines, one clearly for women and one for men.
INCREASING PRIVACY
The standard-issue government "Aqua-Privy" model is about 4-feet above street level since it sits on top of its own
septic tank, and is accessible from both ends. When the doors to the stalls deteriorate, as they inevitably do, from the
bottom-up, passers-by can look right up into the stalls. In the NSDF model, even if the doors deteriorate, the 5-foot
walls outside the stalls block the possibility of any peeking.
DOOR DESIGN
The stalls of both models are pretty small. To make it easier to move in and out of the stall, when you're carrying a
bucket of water, the NSDF model has doors which swing both ways. The government model has inward-swinging
doors which force you to press against the not-so-clean inside walls to open the door and get out.
Monday 21 October 13
15. ORGANIZATION FOR HEAVY USE
The 10 stalls in the government block are ranged around a large central space, accessible from both ends.
In the morning hours, when competition for use of the toilets is heaviest, there is much acrimonious jostling
and queue-breaking in the competition for toilets. The NSDF/MM block's layout, with its 2-lines and narrow
passages is an effective "crowd-organizer" and strife-avoider. Two lines form and lead right out of the
enclosure, while at the toilets end, one person waits outside of each stall. When that person goes in, the
next person in the queue takes his place.
PLANNING FOR CHILDREN
When queues for toilets are long, children often get shunted aside, and end up being forced to squat
outside, where they soil the drains and periphery. There are also real dangers of very small children falling
into trap-less aqua-privy toilets and drowning. The federations take the needs of kids seriously and have
designed special, shallow children’s latrines, but so far, these have only been tested in the one toilet at
Dharavi.
PLENTY OF VENTILATION
The stalls in the NSDF toilet block are ventilated on all four sides, with ventilating grilles placed high-up on
the wall between the back-to-back stalls, one-foot gaps at the top of the side walls, and gaps above the 6foot doors, so the stalls are ventilated on all four sides and bad smells have four means of escape.
CLEAN OUTSIDE WALLS
In the NSDF Toilet block, the toilets are inside an enclosure. The exterior walls of the enclosure have no
plumbing and are therefore "clean", so the toilet block has a clean public face. These clean outside walls
work better in crowded conditions, where other buildings might directly abut the toilet block. This also allows
toilets to be built up against existing compound walls without befouling them. This cuts the compound wallbuilding bill. Compare with the government blocks, whose exterior walls are the dirty backsides of toilet stalls
and rusty, leaky plumbing.
Monday 21 October 13
16. Technology
California Institute of Technology, USA
To develop a self-contained, solar-powered toilet and wastewater treatment
system. A solar panel will produce enough power for an electrochemical reactor
that is designed to break down water and human waste. Excess power can be
stored to provide energy for nighttime operation or for use under low-sunlight
conditions.
The design looks like a regular toilet, at least above ground. After use, the waste is
flushed down to a holding tank under the floor, where the solid material sinks to the
bottom. When the liquid reaches a certain level, it flows through a tube into a "sunpowered electrochemical reactor." The reaction oxidizes the chloride in the urine,
killing microorganisms in it.
The treated water is filtered and reused the next time someone sits on the toilet.
And the residual chlorine in the water means, "The next flush would already have
disinfectant in it," said Michael Hoffmann, the professor at Caltech who led the
team that designed the toilet.
The hydrogen, meanwhile, could be siphoned off, and the toilet's owners could
"use it as you would use gaseous propane" for cooking, he said. The whole thing is
powered with solar energy.
Loughborough University, United Kingdom
To develop a toilet that transforms feces into biological charcoal (biochar) through hydrothermal carbonization
(decomposition at high temperatures in water without oxygen) of fecal sludge. The system will be powered
from heat generated by combusting the biochar and will recover water and salts from the feces and urine it
produces.
Monday 21 October 13
17. Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands
The Delft University of Technology made a proof-of-concept system that turns dried feces into hydrogen gas.
How it works: First the poop is dried out, then it undergoes a plasma gasification process. Gasification is similar
to plain old burning, but it happens at much higher temperatures—and with a different goal in mind. Plasma
gasification happens at temperatures higher than 2,500°C (!), when an electric current passes through a gas,
creating plasma, which in turn is exposed to the pre-dried feces. What you get out the other side is primarily
hydrogen, which is then stored in a fuel cell.
Aside from the hydrogen fuel product, this technology is interesting because its super-high temperature promises
to kill all pathogens in the feces. That's a big public health bonus!
Eawag: Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology, and
EOOS, Switzerland
This "three-stream" toilet separates urine and feces using a clever
mechanical process.
How it works: When you squat over the toilet, it automatically swivels open
and becomes ready for business (this is decidedly unlike the "Honeybucket"
open-air poop-pile model you may have experienced at outdoor events...).
When you're finished, you work a foot-pump to flush the toilet, and can
(optionally) observe your poop's progress through a clear plastic window.
Because the waste streams (urine and feces) are separated, they can be
treated independently, making the job of waste processing easier. The toilet
also automatically recycles water used for flushing, and politely seals itself
when you stand up.
Researchers at Eawag (the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and
Technology) see this toilet being paired with a waste-processing system to
make a complete solution for developing countries. Plus, they made their
prototype a lovely light blue, making it an appealing place to take a pitstop.
Monday 21 October 13
18. National University of Singapore, Singapore
To develop a toilet that uses biochar to dry and combust feces. The heat generated will be used to extract water from
urine by boiling it under pressure. The system can be fitted with activated carbon and exchange resin to recover highly
purified water.
Researchers at the National University of Singapore focused on the power of pee for their urine-centric fertilizercreation process.
How it works: Using a urine-diversion toilet, urine is separated from feces. The feces is dried in a solar dryer and then
burned. The heat from burning the feces evaporates the urine, which results in two key products: water and fertilizer
(urine contains plenty of nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium—urine's got what plants crave). In the end, you have
ash, water, and fertilizer, all of which can be used in agriculture.
One key benefit of this system is that it doesn't require any electricity to operate—it's all manual. That's also arguably
a drawback; running the whole thing by hand is a lot harder than many of the automated processes above. Then
again, hey, free fertilizer!
Oklahoma State University
Professor A.J. Johannes of Oklahoma State University led a research group to mechanically disinfect poop, making it
safer to handle. Well, maybe not to handle, but to...deal with.
How it works: Johannes explains, "Feces is a viscous substance. Heat is produced when viscous substances
undergo shear." Johannes and his team created a machine in which a cone sits inside a shell; the design is akin to
two ice cream cones stacked together. You insert the poop in the gap between the outer cone and the inner cone,
rotate the cones, and the poop gets surprisingly hot (as high as 200°C just from shear force produced by rotation) as
it passes through. That heat kills a lot of the hazardous stuff living in the poop, thus reducing disease risk from
untreated waste. It's energy-efficient, because you simply have to turn the crank, rather than heat the poop directly.
Monday 21 October 13
19. University of Toronto, Canada
To develop a toilet that uses a technology for treating solid waste streams through mechanical dehydration and
smoldering (low-temperature, flameless combustion) that will dispose of the waste within 24 hours. Urine will pass
through a sand filter and be disinfected with ultraviolet light. Thus, it sanitizes feces and urine and recovers
resources and clean water.
Stanford University and the Climate Foundation, USA
To develop a self-contained system that pyrolyzes (decomposes at high temperatures without oxygen) human
waste into biochar. Energy recovered from the biochar production process will be used for heating the system.
University of Kwazulu-Natal, South Africa
To develop a toilet system that can safely dispose of pollutants and recover materials such as water and carbon
dioxide from urine in community bathrooms. The system will separate urine from feces and extrude the feces into
thin strands for faster drying and stabilization.
Cranfield University, United Kingdom
To develop a toilet that removes water from human waste and vaporizes it using a hand-operated vacuum pump
and a unique membrane system. The remaining solids will be turned into a safe-to-handle material that can also be
used as fertilizer. The water vapor will be condensed and sanitized so it can be used for washing or irrigation.
Santec LLC, USA
To develop an electric toilet, powered by solar power stored in batteries, that will separate liquids from solids and
dewater and convert fecal matter into biochar. This approach examines using resistive heating through batterystored solar power and is designed from existing off-the- shelf components.
Monday 21 October 13
20. Unilever PLC, United Kingdom
To advance the application of pyrolysis technology at communal toilet sites, a process suited to decompose human
waste at high temperatures to produce electricity and biochar.
Eram Scientific Solutions Private Limited, India
To make public toilets more accessible to the urban poor via the eco-friendly and hygienic “eToilet.” The stand- alone
toilet is automatically cleaned after each use and that water is recycled for flushing the toilet. The eToilet can be
maintained and operated remotely by computer, improving cleanliness, service quality, and consistency.
RTI International, USA
To develop a self-contained toilet system that disinfects liquid waste and turns solid waste into fuel or electricity through
a novel biomass energy conversion unit.
University of Colorado Boulder, USA
To develop a solar toilet that uses concentrated sunlight, directed and focused with a solar dish and concentrator, to
disinfect liquid-solid waste and produce biochar that can be used as a replacement for wood charcoal or chemical
fertilizers.
Duke University, USA
To develop, build, and evaluate a novel technique to treat fecal sludge using supercritical water oxidation, a process in
which water is heated under pressure and then oxygen is added to burn up human waste. The reaction produces clean
water, heat, carbon dioxide, benign salts, and nitrogen, all of which can be used by the community or turned into
business opportunities.
Monday 21 October 13
21. Sanitation Markets and Marketing
Products’ appeal to people in real-world settings.
Major role players ; local governments, service providers, and community-based organizations.
Short-term focus on innovations that generate revenue for private-sector providers who can profit from
byproducts that have market value, such as energy and fertilizer generated from fecal sludge.
Long-term focus on Public Sector’s role
Sanitation Marketing :
Perhaps poor people could be
made to want things tat they
needed.
Understand how and why people
buy latrines and the make it much
easier for them to do so.
Techniques : Research, Promotion
and improved supply chains.
(Make toilets like toothpaste :
widely available, cheap enough
and wanted!)
Monday 21 October 13
22. Deliverable
A scaled prototype of a new design for toilet that fulfills
the design definitions listed earlier
Monday 21 October 13
