New technology to tackle open defecation
The toilet-to- cash incentive inherent in the Dry Toilet (DT) technology could be a major boost to the campaign to eliminate open defecation from the Ho Municipal area as well as promote organic vegetable gardening.
The DT is being popularized in the Ho Municipal Area as part of a Sister-City arrangement with the Lahti Region in Finland.
The DT developed by Lahti University of Applied Sciences, Finland, uses a simple technique to produce manure and urea by separating urine from human faeces.
Sawdust or wood ash is then used in treating the faeces in a separate chamber to speed up dehydration and decomposition for between six to 12 months to produce manure for growing vegetables.
The urine is likewise collected and stored for the same period and used as urea in growing vegetables.
The technology is said to be in use by households in Indonesia, Bolivia and India where it has been adapted to local conditions and incorporated into the campaign against open defecation.
In Burkina Faso the bye products from the DTs have become lucrative business as urine is packaged in jerry cans for sale.
Already people are said to be stealing manure made from the DTs in parts of the Ho Municipal area where the technology is being piloted using local materials as much as possible to cut down cost.
Mr Richard Ahiagbede, Ho Municipal Environmental Health Officer, said once households begin to appreciate the income generating prospects of DTs, the DTs could prove to be useful in solving dual problems of faecal disposal and OD in the Municipal Area.
Piritta Kettunen and Emilia Osmonen from Lahti University of Applied Sciences are training 13 artisans from five Zonal Councils in the Ho Municipal Area to build the toilets.
The artisans would build their own DTs as a way of helping to popularize and encourage households to have the toilets constructed for them using local materials.
The Government of Ghana and UNICEF are currently engaged in a project to eradicate open defecation in some communities in the Volta, Northern, Upper-East, Upper-West and Central regions by 2016.
Source: GNA