Did you just say Pee Fertilizer?

A typical toilet flusher wastes up to 22 liters of drinkable water every day and three- to six-liter flushes at a time. What follows is a long and costly process of sanitizing the water that was clean before you answered nature’s call. Using so much water per flush unnecessarily increases the volume of our waste and the cost of its transportation and treatment –a process that leaves a huge carbon footprint.

 

Why Pee?

It’s the method of treating your pee and poo as two separate entities. Urine Diversion (UD) is a process that splits the two at the source, no longer leaving you with waste, but with two very valuable resources. Urine and feces are partitioned into two compartments. Urine will go through one compartment and feces will go through another. Both are then stored in separate holding tanks.   

Valuable plant nutrients are found in human excreta. A higher proportion of these nutrients – nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium –reside in your urine compared to your feces. The exact breakdown of urine varies depending on the diet of the pee-maker. The more protein a person consumes, the more nitrogen will be excreted into the urine. Urine also contains salt – sometimes quite a lot of it if you are hopped up on a diet of canned soup and French fries.

 

Try it at home

To use urine as a fertilizer safely, it should be stored for 1 to 6 months in a sealed container. When urine is stored the pH value, which is usually 6 – 7, will increase to around 9 as urea decomposes into ammonia/ammonium. This process sanitizes the urine overtime killing off pathogens. The longer the urine is stored the more sanitized the urine will become, thus increasing the variability of crops that can be fertilized. For instance, urine that is stored for 6 months can be safely used on all types of crops for consumption.

 

Grossness factor

A disadvantage of maintaining a pit latrine is the cleanup process. Not only is discarding the waste laborious and messy, but quite smelly as well. UD would make this step much easier by keeping the feces dry. The foul smelling fecal sludge that we all associate “shit” as is the result of feces and urine mixing. The more time dedicated to “drying out” the feces will ultimately transform the substance into an easily handled ashy and odourless type of material. The dried feces can be used for composting but must be stored much longer than urine in order to efficiently kill off the large variety of pathogens that live within feces.

 If designed and operated properly a UD toilet can be built indoors, improving the users security and enhance privacy. This can be an essential feature for women and girls who may not utilize the toilet at night for safety reasons. In addition, building the UD system indoors allows it to be paired or in close proximity to a hand washing station. This is important as it could increase hand-washing rates, which would alternatively improve hygiene.

 

Its got potential

At Manavta, we are currently working on putting together a pilot project that will showcase our UD toilet designs and provide us further research on its uses and disadvantages. Since WASH in schools is about engaging the greater community, we see these toilets as a tool to please nearby farmers (like our friend Krishna) who spend far too much money on commercial fertilizers, help conserve water in the long run and end open defecation. If you want to learn more refer to our concept design or check out this WaterAid report on UD in Nepal. 

                   Krishna at his farm in Lauke, Nepal - the site of our Pilot Project in March 2013 

#MenstruationMatters

Education For All

Aside from the fact that education is a fundamental human right, the benefits of educating girls are indisputable, with many arguing that it is the single most important way to address global poverty and promote economic development. In India if just one percent more girls attended secondary school, their GDP would increase by $5.5 billion.

Educated girls are healthier, marry later, and have fewer children. An extra year of school for girls can:

1.  Reduce infant mortality by 5-10%

2. Increase a girl’s future earnings by 10-20% for primary school or 15-25% for  secondary school.

 

Why is it that 42% of girls in the developing world are not enrolled in school?

For many menstruation results in absences, which then leads to them falling behind in school. In Nepal as many as 3 out of 10 girls report missing school because of their period. In India, almost a quarter of girls drop out of school entirely after starting their periods.

Girls in many parts of the developing world face a combination of menstruation related barriers that vary depending on the local culture and environment. Myths, taboos, and a general lack of education regarding menstruation often create an unsupportive environment.

In some parts of western Nepal the practice of chaupadi, or the separation of women during menstruation, is still common - though it is gradually changing. Chaupadi originated from Hinduism and is based on the belief that menstruating women are impure or polluting, so they cannot go in the house or eat with their family during that time. 

Many girls face a lack of access to adequate hygienic products (and often have to use unsanitary materials such as old rags, leaves, or ash), as well as pain management methods to help them deal menstrual cramps. To top it off, many schools do not provide girls with access to safe, private, and clean toilet or latrine facilities.

Thus, to keep girls in school the incorporation of WASH programming that includes Menstrual Hygiene Management is crucial.

Changing cultural norms and dispelling harmful myths takes time and education, but ensuring that girls have access to adequate toilet facilities at school provides them with the environment they need to be comfortable, confident, and successful.

Combining toilets with menstrual hygiene education (for girls AND boys), as well as access to appropriate sanitary products is a huge step in the right direction towards educating girls and promoting gender equality, which in turn benefits the health of their family and community and boosts the economy.

 

Menstrual Hygiene Day

Our vision at Manavta is to create a world in which every girl and woman can manage her menstruation in privacy, safety and with dignity. Menstrual Hygiene Day will help to break the silence and build awareness about the fundamental role that good menstrual hygiene management (MHM) plays in enabling women and girls to reach their full potential. To learn more visit www.menstrualhygieneday.org/ and check out our Resources to learn about our MHM initiatives.