Sanitation and Cleanliness for a Healthy Environment 43
Improved and adapted dry toilets
The toilets in this book are only some of the options for ecological sanitation. They
can be improved and adapted to meet the needs of different communities. Some things
that will make a dry toilet work better are:
Heat from the sun
Build the toilet so that the chamber doors
face the sun, and paint the door panels black.
This will make the chambers heat up, improve
ventilation, and kill germs faster.
More air flow
Laying bamboo, corn stalks, branches, or
other dry plant matter on the floor of the
chamber before use will help air flow through
the feces for faster drying.
Wash toilet with reed bed
People in India have adapted the dry toilet to let both
urine and wash water drain into a bed of reeds.
Ash bucket
Urine hole
Washing is done over a
hole that drains into the
bed of reeds.
Wash water
Feces hole
The plant bed where the wash water and
urine go is filled with sand and gravel
and planted with reeds or other local,
non-edible plants. When the plants grow
too big, they are cut back and thrown in
the toilet.
The chambers under the toilet are lined with straw before
use, to absorb moisture and make a good bed for the
compost. Every time it is used, 1 or 2 handfuls of soil are
thrown in. Every now and again, some dry plant matter is
added to help the material dry and decompose. After one
year of use, the first chamber is opened and the material is
put in a compost pile.