Monitoring and Evaluation of Ecosan Project Cagayan de Oro

Summary Report

Yvette B. Guanzon, Glenda Y. Sol and Analiza U. Miso

A monitoring and evaluation of the PUVeP ecosan project was conducted in the seven allotment and school gardens of Cagayan de Oro City from May 22 to 26, 2007. A total of 43 persons (27 males and 16 females) attended the focus group discussions which centered about the ecological sanitation concept in general, as well as the design, use and maintenance of the urine-diverting dehydration toilets (UDDT) in specific.

As regards the ecosan concept in general, most of the gardeners understand that ecological sanitation is important since it is designed to prevent the contamination of ground water by pathogens, thus avoiding the spread of diseases and protecting the health particularly of the children. It is also water saving since no water is used for flushing.  Establishing the ecosan toilet inside the allotment garden is useful since faeces and urine can be used in agriculture. However, urine and faeces should be sanitized for months before being used. Urine and faeces are also considered as substrate for vermicomposting. Based on their experience, urine can kill pests, while faeces provides good quality soil. The design used could be shared to neighbors who are not using the conventional toilet type. Also, this could be a system to be adopted by the government.

Most of the gardeners are interested to have a UDD toilet at their home because of the reuse and water saving aspect and since it protects environment. They find it also cheaper compared to the conventional type in terms of maintenance. However, constraints hindering them to establish this type of toilet are lack of finances, lack of space and their situation as squatters and/or renting only their houses. Some gardeners worry that there will be plenty of stored faeces and no one will collect it since they do not have a garden at home. Hence, they find it more fitting to rural areas where urine and faeces can readily be reused in agriculture. Some expressed concerns about establishing it inside their houses since the faeces vault will not be exposed to sunlight. The covering materials such as ash or lime may also be a problem since it is not always available at home.

Most of the gardeners are of the opinion that the toilet is useful not only for them but also for their children, visitors and buyers. For some of them, it is something to be proud of since it adds beauty to the garden. They consider the toilets as safer compared to open urination and defecation where there is the risk to be bitten by snakes or other harmful animals. The type of toilet is a good model since it is comfortable to use and there is no need for a septic tank, which is expensive to be emptied by the “Fuso Negro”. Few gardeners, however, do not use the toilet since their houses are located nearby while some others felt shy to use it since it is more beautiful as compared to the toilets they have at home.

In terms of the design of the urine diversion toilet, most of the gardeners find the toilet bowl with urine compartment and faeces hole not suited to be used by children. Some gardeners allow their children to squat on the bowl.

For some, the mouth of the bowl is not comfortable to sit on. They encountered difficulties in separating the urine from the faeces. Incidents occurred where some faeces were found in the hole for urine while it is also unavoidable to mix some urine in the faeces especially for females.

The male urinal is in general all right but the design should be improved since sometimes some urine remains in the urinal and becomes smelly. There was a general agreement that the anal cleaning area is very difficult to use since area is very shallow and too close to the wall. The hand washing basin and soap dish are fine, although sometimes no soap is available. Most of the gardeners wash their hands with soap every after using the toilet. The faeces and urine vaults, including the containers and vent pipe are satisfactory and in place.

As regards the maintenance of the toilet, ample supply of lime is a problem since it is not always available in the area. One of the problems encountered is the odor when the bowl is open which may be caused by the malfunctioning of the ventilation pipe in some areas. Also, the cleaning of the bowl is a concern, especially when there are many users who do not know how to use it properly, i.e. when some of the faeces sticks on the sides of the bowl.

Soft brooms and stick brooms are used to clean the floor tiles which is followed-up by mopping with a rug. The bowl is also cleaned using the rug. For some gardens, it is the president who does the cleaning.

Some of the gardeners, especially in the school-based allotment gardens requested more information regarding the ecosan concept.

Recommendations:

§         Toilet seat covers should be provided for allotment gardens to make the use more comfortable. Otherwise, the mouth of the bowl should be thicker.

§         The urinal should be funnel-shaped to allow all liquids to be drained properly. A so-called P-trap should be placed to the urine pipe to minimize odor emission from the urine container.

§         The anal cleaning area should be placed at a certain distance from the wall. The area should be deeper or a special bowl should be used.

§         Cleaning of the toilet should be done by the person who uses it immediately after use.

§         All gardeners should be informed on results of ecosan experiments.

§         Ventilation pipes should be improved, especially increased in length.

§         Slippers should be used inside the toilet to avoid making it dirty. Rugs for cleaning the toilet and toilet papers for wipers should be made available.

§         There should be a regular schedule that on a rotational basis everybody is in charge to clean the bowl.

§         Faeces and urine vaults should be locked to avoid exposure/direct contact with children.

§         Additional lectures/demonstration should be given to all allotment gardeners aside from information posters posted inside the toilet to enhance information on the ecosan concept as well as the proper use and maintenance of the toilet.

§         PUVeP to address the concerns especially on improving the design of the toilet as recommended by the users.