New waterless, hygienic and comfortable school toilets built in rural Moldova

New waterless, hygienic and comfortable school toilets are built for schools, town hall and households in rural Moldova

04.11.2008 |Margriet Samwel

Until now the children of the primary school in the Moldovien villages Bacseni and the kindergarten of Criscauti had to make use of bad smelling, unhygienic and especially in winter very cold pit latrines, located in the backyard of the schools.

The villages don´t have central water supply nor a wastewater treatment system and the groundwater is often polluted with nitrates up to 500 mg/l or even more. The limit is 50mg/l. One of the sources of pollution are the pit latrines, which infiltrate human waste in the soil and groundwater.

To convince the local authorities that odourless indoor toilets are possible for schools even without access to central water supply or sewage system, an excursion was organised to Stepanovka, Ukraine in 2007. In 2006 in Stepanovka urine diverting dry toilets were built for a school with 400 users - Fondation Ensemble project implemented by WECF in cooperation with Mama86 Odessa.This type of toilets does not pollute the groundwater, and if well maintained are hygienic, safe and comfortable. And it even provides, when properly used, a very good fertilizer .

Modern urine diverting dry toilets for public toilets in rural Moldovia

In Bacseni a double vault urine diverting dry toilet (uddt) facility was constructed for a primary school by the Swiss Development Agency (SDC). The local WECF partner of the NGO WISDOM and Ecotox were responsible for the educational part of the project, and trained children and staff on how to use and maintain the toilet facility and how to sanitise and reuse the toilet products.

In the village Criscauti a UDDT was built for a kindergarten, for children from 4- 6 years old. This project was implemented in the frame of the ELA project, funded by the dutch ministry of Foreign Affairs. The project received technical support of SDC staff in Moldova..

In the village Bolduresti the mayor applied for having clean and comfortable indoor urine diverting dry toilets for staff and visitors of the town hall. In cooperation with the SDC, local authorities and the ELA project partner WISDOM the facility was designed and realized. An information table at the entrance of the townhall area explains the visitors the concept of sustainable sanitation and urine diverting toilets

Although no central water supply was available, all the facilities were equipped with hand wash basins and "running" water. Partly by having a well with a pump, partly with very simple equipment. The wash facility of the kindergarten in Criscauti is very innovative. Via a garbage bin fixed at the wall, is filled with water and connected by a pipe with the tap.

All the constructed toilet facilities are urine dry diverting: the urine is separated collected and stored in reservoirs, the feaces are separated collected and sanitised by storage and drying or composting according the recommendations of the WHO guidelines on the reuse of human excreta

Modern urine diverting dry toilets for households in rural Moldovia.

The local Moldovan ELA project partner WISDOM and EcoTox coordinated the planning, construction, and training for several urine diverting dry toilets (uddt) for households in rural Moldovian villages Bolduresti, Criscauti. In the village Bolduresti 40 households were interested in having a uddt. The households have to contribute 50% of the costs the other 50% is financed by the ELA project.

After having seen the new indoor dry urine diverting school toilets many villagers were interested to improve their sanitary conditions. The new toilets are constructed in house or nearby the entrance, which means hugh improvement of comfort. All the bathrooms have a urinal and a simple hand wash basin and water reservoir.

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