Dimapur, August 16 (MExN): Piloting eco-san toilet at Beisumpuikam village under Peren district is a new approach which may be the first of its kind in Nagaland state. Ecological Sanitation (“ecosan”) is an established, cost effective, and environmentally as well as socially sound alternative that can help to solve the pressing problems concerning inadequate sanitation.
The objective of ecosan is to produce hygienically safe and useful resources from human wastes. This does not only improve the environmental situation, but also improves the living conditions in a sustainable way and lowers risks for human health. In brief it is an approach “to turn waste into wealth.”
This approach is where sanitation can be viewed as a three-step process dealing with human excreta, containment, and sanitization and recycling. The objective is to protect human health and the environment while reducing the use of water in the sanitation system and recycling nutrients. Sanitation problems could be solved more sustainably and efficiently if the resources contained in excreta and wastewater were recovered and used rather than discharged into the water bodies and the surrounding environment.
“We are all aware that the existing trend of very centralized water supply and sewage treatment systems is being increasingly challenged on grounds of operational difficulty, high energy and environmental costs,” stated a press note issued by the Care-Centre for Environment and Rural Poor (C-Cerp). The effectiveness of decentralized water supply and sanitation systems has been proved many a times and has a proven advantage of spreading water scarcity and operation problems.
C-Cerp has constructed Eco-San toilets at Beisumpuikam village for the homes of 20 destitutes. It is sponsored by UNICEF-SEI. It was inaugurated at the project village on July 28, 2009 by Prakash Kumar, Sustainable Sanitation Expert EcoSanRes Programme, UNICEF- Stockholm Environment Institute. He interacted with the village community in the morning and returned to Dimapur for “Ecological Sanitation Workshop” at Hotel Tragopan. He was a resource person on Sustainable Sanitation: Urine harvesting and its linkage with agriculture and Eco-san in urban setting, waterless urinals and rainwater harvesting.
Liangsi Niumai John, Director of C-Cerp presented a paper on Piloting Ecological Sanitation in Beisumpuikam Village, Nagaland for sustainable living. She stated that the type of ecosan construction at Beisumpuikam village is Double Vault/Double Chamber for alternative use after one year each with urine and wast water diversion suitable for high water table, waterlogged and flood prone as well as water-scarce and rocky areas. They are installed on the backyard of the garden for the users. It is a low-cost type appropriate for rural situations. After a month’s time feedback from the users will be documented basing on it, a kit manual/handbook on the use and practice of Ecological Sanitation in the Nagaland Context will be ready for spreading awareness.
The purpose of the workshop is to enhance the knowledge of this new concept, a call to raise awareness about ecosan so that individuals, organisations and governments can choose it as a sound approach.
The participants from Government department are PHED Rural Division, Directorate of Geology and Mining, Agriculture, Red Cross Society, NEIP, N.B.S (Education), concern citizens and Board members of C-Cerp.
Interaction session among the participants and with the expert was viable not only on its technologies, but also on other aspects of sanitation, hygiene and health, on environmental and social issues and the reuse of ecosan products.
