To save fresh water from being flushed down the toilet, the rural development ministry has decided to promote the use of ecological sanitation structures in its Total Sanitation Campaign, an initiative to make the country ‘open defecation free’. The structure that will store human waste will not only save water but will also help in manufacture of safe and usable manure and fertilizer.

The ministry brought an amendment to Para 9(h) of TSC guidelines on May 21 to include the use of these ecological sanitation structures. The structure will consist of specially designed toilet seat to separate urine and faeces at the source. Urine will be collected in a container while faeces will be deposited into a closed chamber under the toilet seat. Generally two chambers will be constructed above the ground. Six months after the chambers are full, they will be emptied out, free of pathogens, ready to be used as manure. Under conventional system of sanitation, large quantity of treated water that is even suitable for drinking is flushed into the toilets.

“Lack of wastewater disposal system in rural areas may lead to contamination of ground water. Hence the use these ecological sanitation structures make sense,” said an official. The official, in promoting these new structures will however have to ensure that it does not involve the practice of manual clearing of human excreta and that they do not lead to contamination of water bodies in anyway.