Ecoloo : Experimenting with Dry Toilets in Rural Goa

In the earliest civilisations, humans simply used pits to dump their waste and these evolved into sanitation channel systems that took waste out to rivers or the sea. From the bare basics to the now sophisticated flush toilets, septic tanks and sewage treatment plants, these systems have only superficially evolved. The challenge to provide a sustainable solution to managing sewage still remains.

Human faeces contain 90% water and essential nutrients like potassium, phosphorous and nitrogen. This waste is actually a resource farmers could easily use in lieu of energy intensive synthetic fertilisers to feed crops. And, ironically, we flush down this valuable resource with water that is meant for drinking! Human faeces also carry harmful pathogens that cause disease and therefore need safe disposal. It can take one to two years to biodegrade before being safe as manure. This practice was prevalent in many civilisations and continued until the emergence of septic tanks in the modern world

Goa has had its own unique solution to waste in the form of pig toilets, also used in China. Old Goan houses had kitchen yards where all the waste water would be routed to a clump of food plants like banana, elephant ear and colocasia where the plant roots would biologically clean the grey water and aeration would further aid its filtration. Some towns adopted systems where night soil workers would manually cart off the waste from toilets. In most villages, open defecation was the accepted norm. Even today, Goa has many hamlets and suburbs that lack basic toilet facilities.

Most areas provided with community or public toilets are ineffective because of safety issues, poor maintenance and difficult access. Users expect service providers to clean up their mess. Toilets are often found wet, smelly and unflushed despite facilities being provided in most cases. With urban growth and population rising, every city in India is now grappling with the issue of waste management. Rivers, creeks and lakes have become cess pools. In Goa too, the indiscriminate flushing of sewage into water bodies is beginning to raise a stink. Casinos are clogging the river mouths and recent studies have shown that e-coli have been found in samples taken along Goa’s sea coast.

Goa has had its own unique solution to waste in the form of pig toilets, also used in China

Experimental Initiatives in Carambolim

Carambolim or Karmali is a small village in northern Goa. It is an Important Bird Area (IBA), and a meeting point for nature enthusiasts for many years. Over the last few years it has also become a backyard for trash. Stinking piles of waste, both food and non-biodegradable is dumped along street corners. Waste water and sewage is let out into the nalla that forms a critical connection between the fresh water lake and the backwaters leading to the Cumbarjua Canal and Zuari River.

Recently, Mitsuko Trust, an NGO based in Goa’s capital city, Panjim, working to empower children, was invited to set up the Village Child Committee in Carambolim. The trust has been working with the village children on a couple of initiatives to empower them through theatre and sports. During this process, trust members discovered that the children had no toilets in their homes and didn’t feel safe using the comunal ones as they were ill-maintained and too far away. The women had similar issues and most adults suffered from health problems due to the lack of toilet facilities. Consultations with the villagers highlighted that in the absence of toilets and a garbage management system, the residents had no choice but to use the canal in their backyard as a dumping place. Because of the small land holdings, they were unable to build toilets, septic tanks and soak pits within their homes. In the rains, most senior citizens, women and children would simply excrete on dry paper and discard it in their backyard.

Mitsuko Trust in partnership with the Global Shapers Panjim Hub, a youth arm of the World Economic Forum, put together a team to ideate a waste management model in sync with the recently launched Central Government initiative called ‘Swachha Bharat’. Further study and research led the team to adopt a dry toilet model that has been practiced the world over in similar conditions. A dry toilet has chambers built above ground for faeces and a separate receptacle for urine and wash water. After each use, instead of water, a dry mixture of ash, sawdust and lime is sprinkled over the faecal matter whereby it decomposes to become manure, often referred to as ‘humanure’. All the waste water and urine is collected in a root zone plant bed where food plants like banana, colocassia, canna indica, etc. filter the water for safe percolation into the ground. These systems have proven to be absolutely pollution-free and most importantly convert waste into a resource. This model is ideal in areas of severe water pollution, water logging and desert climates.

The manure or byproduct of Ecoloos is a great natural additive to enrich soil

During stakeholder discussions, many participants raised pertinent questions about the practicality, use and long term impacts of the dry toilet. On presenting the model and explaining its long term benefits to both users as well as the environment, many villagers came forth to register their names as beneficiaries of the proposed project. The Karmali Village Panchayat volunteered support as partners in the initiative. Around 40 families vouched support and Mitsuko Trust implemented the first pilot model for Mr. Prabhakar Naik of Parkebhat in Carambolim village. This pilot was completed in May 2015. The pilot project succeeded largely because Mr. Prabhakar took ownership of the facility and fully comprehended its long term impacts on their village. Mitsuko Trust was also closely involved in the post-implementation period monitoring the model’s usage. Following the success of the first unit, Mitsuko Trust received funds from Fundacao Oriente as part of its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiative to implement another ‘Ecoloo’ in the village. This was built as an indoor unit.

In November 2015, the Ecoloo project was showcased at the ‘Terra Preta Sanitation & Decentralised Wastewater System’ (TPS-2015) conference at the Birla Institute of Technology & Science (BITS) Pilani, Goa campus. In May 2016, Care Today, a community arm of the India Today Group, visited the Ecoloos and evinced support to the project. On receiving funds, Mitsuko Trust have now built another five in the community. Upon affirming its use and success, the rest of the 30 units will also be built over the next few months.

While the first Ecoloo cost `50,000, the succeeding ones were built within a very tight budget of  `20,000. The models are constantly being improved upon to make them cost-effective without compromising their functionality. Other NGO’s across India keen on replicating these modules are now communicating with Mitsuko Trust to empower communities with simple yet functional facilities for sanitation while mitigating environmental pollution. Though this is still a drop in the ocean, it is definitely a step in the right direction.

Tallulah D’Silva is a practicing architect in Goa and an adjunct professor at the Goa College of Architecture. Her work includes cost effective and sustainable private residences, institutions and hospitality projects. She has also dabbled in efforts on urban renewal, mobility planning, heritage conservation and basic services for the urban poor.