31.12.2021
Turning Human Waste Into Organic Fertilizers
Imagine living right next to the world’s second biggest lake and still not have access to clean drinking water or decent sanitation. The central African country Uganda lies on the shores of Lake Victoria, Africa’s biggest lake. It does bring prosperity through fishing and water transport, but 24 million people lack drinking water and 29 million people lack sanitation. A composting toilet is a type of dry toilet that treats human excreta by a biological process called composting. The ecofriendly toilet is used by some of the community members who do not have a sanitation facility. Unlike the normal latrines, this one is made up of a bucket which is placed under a fixed toilet seat with a cover. The plastic toilet seat cover is placed on top of a wooden frame below which the bucket is placed. Inside the bucket is sawdust, which not only helps kill the bad smell, but also keeps flies away. There is also more saw dust kept in a separate bucket in one corner of the facility from which one picks to pour into the toilet when they have finished using it. The human waste generated here is not dumped but rather kept safely and decomposed in a pile for organic manure. This toilet has two wings: one for men and the other for women. Each wing has two stalls with one bathroom. Credit: DW
Poverty deprives people of adequate education, health care and of life's most basic necessities- safe living conditions (including clean air and clean drinking water) and an adequate food supply. The developed (industrialized) countries today account for roughly 20 percent of the world's population but control about 80 percent of the world's wealth.
Poverty and pollution seem to operate in a vicious cycle that, so far, has been hard to break. Even in the developed nations, the gap between the rich and the poor is evident in their respective social and environmental conditions.
Poverty and pollution seem to operate in a vicious cycle that, so far, has been hard to break. Even in the developed nations, the gap between the rich and the poor is evident in their respective social and environmental conditions.
