Eco-toilet: an ecological sanitation option for difficult areas of Bangladesh (practice)

Bangladesh has made significant progress in sanitation under the programme Sanitation for All by 2013. Coverage and sustainability, however, still remain major challenges. The problems related to sanitation vary between urban and rural areas and among different geographical regions of Bangladesh. Considering the drawbacks of current sanitation technologies (with respect to varying local conditions), Practical Action Bangladesh has started working on eco-toilet and piloting beginning in 2006.  With financial support from UNICEF and DPHE, Practical Action Bangladesh and its partner NGOs implemented an action research project on ecological sanitation in difficult areas (urban slums, Hoar, hilly, Barind track and flood prone) of Bangladesh.  The cost of the technology is another challenge for scaling-up. The average cost of the conventional eco-san option is relatively expensive for the poorer sections of the population. In this regard the current action research adopted a variety of options to bring down the cost. A number of design problems of the traditional eco-toilet and several modifications in the design have been made in order to improve the quality of compost and end uses. The research has also attempted to address another challenge of bringing about behaviour changes with respect to the use of eco- toilet. Because of the short duration of the project, it was not possible to demonstrate all the design options in particular for urban slums and areas with a high water table. The project attracted considerable attention among sanitation practitioners in order to address the ecological sanitation solutions for the difficult areas of Bangladesh. [authors abstract ]