Dollo Ado is a Woreda (district) in Somali region of Ethiopia – that borders the troubled Somalia. It’s home to over 200,000 Somali Refugees that fled war, drought and other calamities in Somalia. Hiloweyn refugee camp – one of the five camps in the district– hosts over 39,000 refugees (over 8,000 families). The refugee camp is located on a very rocky ground formation that has been a detriment to different service delivery. It’s flat and dusty with strong winds. This camp is managed by Affairs of Refugee Return and Assistance (ARRA), part of the Ethiopian Government, in coordination with UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR). Established in July 2011, Hiloweyn Camp was a solution to decongest over 15,000 refugees who were then residing at a Transit Centre. The speed of relocation was astronomically high given the fact that Transit Centre was not meant for stay and had basic facilities. For most of the time the camp lay out was challenged by huge numbers coming in a short time.
At the heat of the emergency, simple critical services were provided using temporary facilities. Water was delivered through water tankers and temporary reservoirs. Emergency trenches (0.7m deep) were provided to serve as latrines. Everything was done at lightning speed. These trenches were excavated using heavy duty excavators. Manual pit digging is unthinkable in 90% parts of the camp. This was a race against time. Gradually, we moved into semi-permanent latrines that were 3m deep – still excavated by the heavy duty machines. The excavator costs us $1k for roughly 2/3 pits a day. Thus each pit costs from $330 to $500 depending on the ground formation – without factoring in the 200 litres of fuel it consumed. Each litre costs $1.00. All these costs do not include the superstructure that makes a latrine complete. And, all this had to be done at terrific speed. We were saving lives. All these latrines were constructed in a sanitation corridor – that could not allow free movement of earth moving equipment anymore. And, if a latrine gets full it has to be decommissioned and replaced. UNHCR WASH team was tasked to have a lasting solution to latrines in Hiloweyn.
So what?
As the emergency gets behind us we had to look for a sustainable latrine option of the camp. I had the luxury to meet few experts in the field when they made field visits in the camp. We had consultants too. We wanted to get a sustainable, cost effective solution for latrines in Hiloweyn. One of the experts recalled, ‘you have to figure it yourself. This will not be an easy ride’. Whereas this sounded a strong message for despair, it indeed inspired me and the team. It was time for innovation, time to bring science to real application. We had a great day with our Implementing Partner (IP), OXFAM, to think through what it meant to have a sustainable latrine in Hiloweyn. This was now critical in that, the excavator was already taken out of the Woreda and had reached Addis Ababa (1,000kms from Dollo Ado) and it requires a minimum of 3 months of mobilization to have it back. More importantly, we had run low on funding. Necessity was one of the biggest driving forces to our innovation.
This is how the idea of Urine Diversion Dry Toilet (UDDT) was nurtured. It was developed on the tenets of Reduce, Reuse and Recycle (RRR). The UDDT ensures that urine is diverted from the solids (feces) and allow for microbiological degradation of the solids to a ‘dry cake’ that can be used as a fertilizer (rich in Phosphorous and Nitrogen). The Urine ends up on the surface within the latrine structure – that has high temperature (supposedly dries off immediately). The UDDT is a double vault (chambers) that ensures that one chamber is in use at a given time. When one vault is full, it is closed and the second one if open. This allows the closed chamber (full and locked) to go through the biological process that allows pathogens to die off. It’s believed that within 40C, it takes a circa 6 months for 100% pathogen die off. It’s at this point that we can evacuate the content to the gardens and re-use the chamber. The initial batch of UDDT latrines – that made the pilot – was solely funded by OXFAM.
However, this method had to be scientifically approved because to maintain a very specific environment: you have to be sure that your reach the optimal temperature (and no moisture), have enough carbon (to accelerate the process) and you have an alkaline environment. After every use, beneficiaries add ash (to ensure alkaline media) and we had metallic plates – painted black – on the chambers to attract more sun rays and have elevated temperature. The papers added some carbon in the process. But still, we still could not be sure that we were getting all the bacteria out of the solid content of the chamber. We went under negotiations with Centre for Disease Control (CDC) to do the necessary tests to ensure that the chamber contents are safe at a given time. CDC has started the process and collected a required sample from us to test. CDC will also work with a local Ethiopian institution, Arba Minch University, to give the whole process a local flavor and positive collaboration. The collaboration with Arba Minch can develop local capacity via skills and knowledge exchange, creating a more sustainable process. Furthermore, we have identified and prepared for a secondary treatment place should the tests show a result contrary to our expectation (requiring more time than anticipated). This will be our plan B.
The UDDT approach has been picked up by many agencies and is now moving towards piloting in other parts of the country. We started with 40 UDDTs as a pilot and we conducted a demand survey to gauge the acceptance. We now have over 700 UDDT latrines in Hiloweyn. The latrines have gained remarkable acceptance in a predominantly Muslim environment where water is widely used for personal cleansing. The current UDDT latrines have been adjusted to the cultural environment based on user feedback through constant feedback sessions and meetings with users.
What are the benefits of UDDT?
- It has no smell/odor due to the dry content in chambers. It is easy to promote with the slogan of ‘No smell’.
- It is a household facility and inculcates a sense of ownership and responsibility among beneficiaries. It also promotes self-esteem among users.
- It is environmentally friendly and lowers the likelihood of contaminating ground water sources.
- It is cost effective: The latrine can be re-used over a long period of time. The initial cost was $700 and was later reduced to $400; however due to user-feedback (and quality concerns) the cost was adjusted to around $600. Overall, it is an investment and a long term saving. A common single pit latrine (household) costs a circa $300 and may last no more than three years, if not shared.
- There is space efficiency as you don’t need space for replacement latrines.
UDDT present a good latrine technological option in locations with hard rock that require high investments for digging pits. It can be re-used for over 30 years. The aim of UDDT is to evaporate and dry out the excreta. The initial costs result in long term saving.
What are the challenges with UDDT?
However, like any new technology, community mobilization is key to the promotion of UDDT. The ‘soft-ware’ components are more important than the technology itself. If there is no well sought community mobilization approaches, UDDT may not quickly be taken up. It is usually promoted in a skeptical environment where there are already latrines that require no after-use services (e.g addition of ash). The success of UDDT was partly due to an effective mobilization work of OXFAM. The on-going feedback mechanism and thorough implementation developed by OXFAM was key to success of UDDT in Hiloweyn Camp.
The challenge remains to promote the use of the pathogen free sludge (created by the UDDT) as a fertilizer – more especially when users know the source. This phase in the project will require concerted efforts from all UNHCR staff at different levels. Firstly, to assure refugees that the content is pathogen free and secondly, that it is a fertilizer just like any other fertilizer (and more natural).
Finally, households currently are generating their own ash to use in the latrin. The source of fuel in Dollo Ado is firewood, but there are ideas and discussions about using alternate fuel options in the area in the future. This may, just may, have an effect on ash production and an effect on UDDT use. The project team will monitor this if any changes in fuel options are made.
So far, this project has had a very positive response from the camp. We are looking forward to continue improving and adjusting as necessary with our partners moving forward.
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