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Everything You Need to Know About Dry Flush Toilets

Dry Flush ToiletsDry flush toilets is a term that likely conjures up images of unsanitary, foul-smelling contraptions. But, in reality, they are quite the opposite. Revolutionary and effective, they have even caught the eyes of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation as a promising solution to the life-threatening sanitation-related diseases, such as cholera and diarrhea. These diseases are faced by the 2.4 billion people around the world who still lack access to clean running water.

How do Dry Flush Toilets Work?

Multiple companies have developed dry flush toilets. Perhaps the most notable development is Cranfield University’s Nano Membrane Toilet.

First developed in 2014, the toilet “flushes” by using a waterless rotating scraping mechanism that separates solid waste from liquid waste. Nanofibers, arranged in bunches inside the chamber, then help to condense the water vapor generated by the urine. They condense it into a tube that eventually flows to a tank externally connected to the toilet. By then the water will have been thoroughly filtered and, as a result, is then suitable for everyday use.

Solid waste, on the other hand, is transported into a combustor. This converts them into energy and ash, via a mechanical screw. The energy then powers the toilet’s future “flushes.” The energy can also charge electronics.

Award-Winning Functionality

Dry flush toilets are designed for daily usage. It can accommodate up to ten individuals daily. The toilets are manufactured at the cost of $2,500 per unit. They can last for up to ten years. The product is still undergoing product and product implementation testing. Researchers have reported promising results from their first phase testing in 2014. They conducted the phase in Ghana. According to their survey, “people seemed very open to most of the concepts around the toilet.”

Since the beginning of its development, the ingenious invention has received an accolade of prestigious awards including the Kiran and Pallavi Patel Grand Innovation Award as well as the Excellence in the Field of Environmental Technology Research from the CleanEquity Monaco.

Challenges

The most prominent challenge facing the implementation of dry flush toilets in developing countries is likely scalability. Communities that choose to implement the contraption would have to have a team of specially-trained technicians to safely maintain the toilets.

Another question is regarding how the toilets would be distributed. Currently, the best path is to rent them to households at either a monthly or weekly rate. This is an approach that companies with similar products employ, such as Loowatt’s waterless toilet. Renting these other products has reflected great success.

In addition, the team is working to make the toilet more affordable, with a goal of a final cost of five cents per person per day.

Another anticipated challenge to dry flush toilets is overcoming cultural barriers. While most Africans prefer Western-style seat toilets, squat toilets are far more common and desirable in Asia.

An Innovation to Aid Impoverished Communities

Conclusively, although still emerging from the prototype phase, dry flush toilets very much so have the potential to change millions of lives within a short period of time from implementation. By ensuring that every individual on this planet has reliable access to a flushing toilet, millions of bases of water-borne diseases can be avoided each year.

– Linda Yan
Photo: Flickr

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Danger of Diarrhea: How to End the Hygiene Crisis in Ghana

How to End the Hygiene Crisis in Ghana
Diarrhea kills 2,195 children each day, more than Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome, malaria and measles combined, and nearly 11 percent of Ghana’s population relies on surface water — water that collects on the surface of the ground or top layer of a body of water — for their daily hydration needs. This water is unpurified and unsafe for human consumption, yet Ghanaians lack a safe alternative. Ghanaians who ingest surface water are at risk for water-related diseases, such as ever-deadly diarrhea.  

Risk of Diarrhea

According to the U.S. National Library of Medicine, diarrhea is a global health concern with 1.7 billion cases occurring every year. Although diarrhea can affect any age-group, it is the second leading cause of death in children under the age of five; in fact, 2,195 child fatalities happen every day worldwide. The hygiene crisis in Ghana has escalated with diarrhea as the third leading cause of death for children under five, taking nearly 10,000 lives every year.

How Does Diarrhea Become Fatal?

Diarrhea depletes body fluids, causing dehydration, and children often die when they have lost too much water from their bodies.

Several organizations have implemented health initiatives to combat the hygiene crisis in Ghana. Preventing diarrhea is possible by increasing water availability and quality, distributing oral rehydration salts, breastfeeding infants until six months of age and educating the population on proper sanitization techniques.

UNICEF and IWASH

‘IWASH,’ UNICEF Ghana’s handwashing project, yields extremely promising results in entire villages in Ghana; the program educates schoolchildren on the health effects of not washing their hands. While touring a handwashing facility with 70 schoolchildren, District Resource Coordinator Issah-Bello said that students should share their knowledge in order to be an ambassador for behavior change and end the hygiene crisis in Ghana.

The Rehydration Project

The Rehydration Project cites oral rehydration salts, or ORS, as the most effective and least expensive way to combat diarrhoeal dehydration. ORS is a combination of dry salts mixed with clean water that replaces fluids lost from diarrhea. If ORS is unavailable, a homemade solution may be made with six teaspoons of sugar, one-half teaspoon of salt and one liter of clean water.

Breastfeeding

Breastfeeding infants until six months of age can reduce infants’ likelihood of contracting diarrhea because breastfeeding mothers do not prepare their infant’s formula with contaminated water.

Clean Water

Water.org believes that clean water is the way to end poverty, save lives and prepare for the future. Since 2009, Water.org has worked to increase access to safe drinking water and sanitization facilities in Ghana. The organization’s current project is expected to be completed in late 2017, and is in the process of constructing 61 water facilities.

Water.org has also reached 53,000 Ghanaians through water systems, health and hygiene education and borehole wells. With numerous solutions like these, the hygiene crisis in Ghana is well on its way to resolution.

– Carolyn Gibson

Photo: Flickr