Sci­en­tists in Zam­bia are devel­op­ing a toi­let that would use human waste as fer­til­izer for farm­ers. The toi­let would sep­a­rate urine and the solids to make two dif­fer­ent types of manure. The sci­en­tists already use one such toi­let for their own exper­i­men­tal garden.

From the IPS, writer Lewis Mwanan­gombe explains how the toi­let works.

Kell­ner and his team at WASAZA are busy push­ing on with devel­op­ing and pop­u­lar­is­ing a latrine that will sep­a­rate human waste into two com­po­nents — urine and solid mat­ter, so they can be processed into two dif­fer­ent forms of manure.

Kell­ner is pilot­ing a sys­tem called a “fertiliser-producing toi­let” which focuses on re-use of solid waste. Such a toi­let, once inte­grated into gar­den­ing, will never fill up.

When a user sits on one of the new toi­lets, the urine will go one way to a stor­age tank fit­ted with a com­pres­sor and a valve, from where it can be col­lected for direct use as liq­uid fer­tiliser after dilution.

The solid waste will fall into a shal­low pit where it will be cov­ered with soil and com­pacted; it will dry it out and neu­tralise it before it is ready for use as fer­tiliser. Any smell is vented out through a pipe.

“The orig­i­nal idea is to enrich the veg­e­ta­tive growth in our imme­di­ate vicin­ity. But it can be sold at pre­vail­ing prices. These days dried sludge from sew­er­age works has a price of ZMK7,500 (around $1.60) per ton,” notes Kellner.

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