eThekwini Municipality has installed in home gardens about 90 000 toilets that don’t use a single drop of water in an effort to improve hygiene and save money. It hopes one day to be able to harvest the by-product of urine to produce agricultural fertiliser.
The city is considering a proposal to install containers on 500 of the toilets to capture urine – which is rich in nitrates, phosphorus and potassium, and can be turned into fertiliser.
Currently the tanks are emptied by each household, and the waste often ends up getting dumped into the environment.
Fin24 said a Swiss lab and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation are backing a study to draw up the modalities for the scheme, which is already winning fans.
Neil MacLeod. chief of water and sanitation at the municipality, told The Mercury newspaper that officials would meet members of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and members of the Swiss group this week to discuss a research project exploring the feasibility of the initiative.
Revenue stream
Apparently some of the toilets have proved problematic in the past: People don’t like dry toilets because of their inferior appearance. Some have converted the toilets into a garage, while others have removed them completely. The municipality’s thinking is that a potential revenue stream (excuse the pun) could change attitudes.
Dry toilets were invented in Yemen centuries ago. In practice they apparently work well in rural areas because the fertiliser produced from the urine and the faeces is used locally.
Dry toilets could mitigate water scarcity
Durban’s move to introduce dry toilets anticipate the water shortages expected to affect South Africa and the eThekwini region in the not-too-distant future, as well as to try to curb costs. Dry toilets are already an established industry around the world. A google search for “Dry toilets” nets almost 3 million results. – Ridge Correspondent