Urine Bank for Food Security

Musiri is on the high water table bank of the river Cauvery. Outwardly it will appear that water is available in plenty. But because of the political conflicts between Tamilnadu and Karnataka States, receipt of water in the river has considerably reduced over the years. Monsoon is very uncertain so with less water the agricultural area will suffer a lot. Construction of Ecosan toilets are slowly on the increase. Musiri is a Taluk head quarters where thousands of people visit everyday. It has a busy farmers' market, hospitals, bus stand and temples and 12 schools and a college with hostels. Therefore lobbying and advocacy are going on for constructing ECOSAN toilets to cover the respective populations. Consequently, more urine has to be collected and disposed. This project will be the beginning.

Goals overview

To establish a Urine Bank for farmers, mechanization of certain processes for easy operation. Capacity building on solid and liquid waste usage. To propagate ECOSAN toilet by upgradation and demand creation for profitable disposal of the faeces and separated urine.

Current status

SCOPE has constructed 3 ECOSAN community and 3000 household toilets including WASTE (ISSUE 1) supported toilets -100 ECOSAN and 10 biogas linked. The urine from the former collected with a motor is transported to the research farm in a tricycle. Researches on paddy and banana are favourable and research on short term crop is ongoing. Currently application of ash over the feaces and the leveling of cone shaped heaps of feaces are done manually. Initially individuals were collecting the urine from the household toilets in claypots and using for kitchen gardens. Now plastic containers have replaced the pots. In households with small homesteads and with no kitchen garden the excess of collected urine is let out to other plants and trees. A few families still have clay pots. IEC/ Awareness programs are being conducted under WASTE ISSUE 2.

Project plan

Fetching water and keeping the house and surroundings clean are mostly done by women and girls. In the current situation sprinkling of ash over the feaces in the chamber is done by the users. However, leveling the cone shaped heap of feaces is normally done by women manually. The mechanisation will reduce their burden as well as make it hygenic and scientific. Both kitchen garden and sale of urine will generate income.
Hereby the needs of the families especially of children could be fulfilled to some extent. It is to be noted that many families have started to raise kitchen gardens after the construction of the Ecosan toilets. The urine is used for kitchen gardens only. Sometimes not all the collected urine could be used in household with small homesteads (poorest families). Regular collection for sale to the farmers will solve the problem. It is to be mentioned that formerly everybody used to defecate in the open fields and roadsides. In Musiri the bank of river Kaveri was the favourite spot. Womenfolk had to do this before sunrise and after sunset. Because of this they had experiences from insects to snake bites. When it rains everyone found it difficult to go out to answer nature's calls. For the sick and handicapped persons it was worse. Later sanitary (pit as well as septic tank) latrines came into use. It had its own disadvantages like (a) the demand for water increased and (b) money had to be spent for removing the black water. The latest development of ECOSAN toilet has no such problems. However mechanization and arrangement to collect and pay for the urine will make things easier, profitable and the ECOSAN popular. It will have positive impact on women, girls, the sick and the handicapped.

Expected outcomes

• Collection of 2,500 litres of urine
• Mechanisation of 100 ECOSAN compost toilets
• 30 ton compost/month with 4 sprinklers, 1 turning machine
• Training/demonstration on urine as manure - 200 farmers

The target families will be aware of ECOSAN concept, advantages and proper usage and maintenance through the awarness and training programmes including field visits. The bad experiences or the negative impact of open defecation and of the use of conventional latrines had made them think of alternatives. Already a number of families had found it in the ECOSAN toilets.They are sure to share their experiences of ECOSAN with others which will be a motivating factor for ECOSAN propagation. Construction of ECOSAN toilets and the related education programme in the schools are sure to motivate the younger generation towards ECOSAN. They will be the advocates and ambassadors of ECOSAN resulting in child to child,child to parents, child to the community communication. Thus a favourable climate wil be generated for ECOSAN. SCOPE has already constructed ECOSAN toilets as mentioned earlier and efforts are going on to mobilize financial support from different quarters including government. So more families will be constructing these toilets. Arrangements for regular collection and sales of the urine and the mechanization will be major motivational factors. The ECOSAN toilets have undergone modifications based on the feedback from the users and maintenance staff of the community toilets. It is estimated that because of this the toilets are expected to be in use for not less than 20 years. Due to uncertain rains and the political conflicts between Tamilnadu and Karnataka States the ground water shortage and reduction in the quantum of river water are threatening the livelihood and health and hygiene of the people in Musiri (as in other similar places). Letting out the black water into the river is polluting the holy river Cauvery.The current pollution if continued, will not only make the water sources unsafe and unusable but also endanger the lives of the people. Since ECOSAN toilets require less amount of water than conventional toilets, sustainability is assured. The solid and liquid wastes from the Ecosan toilets will be very valuable as manure and so will generate demand. This will be an attraction to use and maintain the Ecosan toilets. The escalating costs of the chemical fertilizers will increase the demand. The farmers will also support ECOSAN since urine as manure will reduce the cost of the chemical fertilizers. The training will provide necessary input on the advantages of urine as manure. Thus all the above factors are sure to contribute for sustainability and the upgradations envisaged are sure to be the major factors behind it.