Sulabh Toilet Museum

Ah, culture. On Saturday (before the blasts), I headed to the Sulabh International Toilet Museum here in Delhi. The museum is run by the Sulabh International Social Service Organization. Here is their bio:
Mission: A healthy and hygienic India, free of the practice of defecation in the open and faecal pollution of environment. A society free of untouchability, social discrimination and prevalence of the sub-human practice of manual cleaning of human excreta (scavenging).
The museum was two parts - the first, a look into the history of the toilet, the second - a look into the organizations work. The organization is installing public facilities across India on a contract from the government. Additionally, they are educating folks on how they can install low cost toilets in urban and rural India. These toilets do not use traditional plumbing, instead they have a dual pit system where the waste flows into a sealed pit for 3 years after which the toilet is switched to flow into the second pit.

After 1.5 years - the first pit will have fully decomposed & the village is left with a completly clean & odorless manure that can be used for fertalization. This cycle can be repeated indefinitely - and the whole system can be installed at an extremely low cost.

In addition to the simple toilet, they have also done some interesting work where by they are building toilet facilities that recycle waste water, that use human waste to capture methane (without the use of any electricity) to be used to power generators, cook, or run lighting systems. All in All, this is a pretty cool concept. If you are interested in more information - click here for the museum, Or here for the organization

0 comments: