For St. James Bbina primary school in Kampala city, Uganda, ecological sanitation (ecosan), is no longer just a technology but a commitment. With little or no supervision from teachers, the pupils treat the urine diversion dry ecosan toilets (UDDT) with a sense of ownership and responsibility.
Published on: 04/05/2011
For St. James Bbina primary school in Kampala city, Uganda, ecological sanitation (ecosan), is no longer just a technology but a commitment. With little or no supervision from teachers, the pupils treat the urine diversion dry ecosan toilets (UDDT) with a sense of ownership and responsibility. Each pupil willingly brings at least a kilogramme of ash each from home twice a week to ensure proper use of the facility. Under the supervision of the hygiene prefect, these ashes are collected, bagged to the storage room and used in the UDDT toilets that have been installed in the school.
School children collecting ash
Because they separate urine and faeces, UDDT make it easier to collect uncontaminated urine that can be used as a fertilizer and to compost dry faeces to use as rich and safe manure.
Three to four 20-litre jerry cans of urine per day
Action by the pupils has boosted the amount of urine and dried manure obtained from their toilets, so that the school community is able to collect three to four 20-litre jerry cans of urine a day. The school has used these by-products to enhance its aesthetics, planting grass and flowers on the hitherto bare and dusty compound.
St James Bbina, which is in the Mutungo parish of Nakawa division in Kampala, has a population of 1,705 pupils (720 boys and 985 girls). The school does not only use the urine itself; four farmers currently rely on them for urine and manure as fertilizers for their farms. Mr. Emmanuel Singyesa, the teacher in charge of hygiene, says that plans are far advanced to market these products and get more “clients” to contribute to the financial base of the school. Currently, a jerry can of urine (20lits) sells for UGS 5,000, equivalent to US$ 2.2.The extra income is to be used to support very able but poor pupils at the school.
School compound
Teachers and others have also educated parents about the technology, and even parents who thought that the ecosan toilets offended their cultural beliefs have now agreed to their use. It is believed in some parts of central Uganda that, ash put on toilets causes some sort of irritation and burns which may manifest themselves in real life where an individual’s personal resources may be burnt. With careful sensitisation however, most parents have been reassured and some are even adopting the technology in their homes.
The ECOSAN technology was introduced to the school about four years ago by the Uganda Ministry of Water and the Environment. The Network for Water and Sanitation Uganda (NETWAS Uganda) is providing technical assistance on the use and maintenance of the ecosan toilets plus documentation and dissemination of the good practices to other stakeholders.
Ida Coleman, RCN Ghana, on secondment with NETWAS Uganda as part of the Youth Zone Southern partners' capacity strengthening programme of PSO/IRC.
