Flood-Resilient Toilet: An Eco Katha

Our morning routine: wake up and head straight to the toilet, usually attached to our bedroom, relieve ourselves and freshen up.

But what if one day you woke up to find yourself in waist-deep water, and your toilet submerged in dirty floodwater? And have to live that way, not for a day or two, but for weeks together...

How would you then defecate?

Worse, what would you do if you were a woman having her periods? How would you change your soiled rag/ sanitary pad without any privacy and dignity?

These are very real concerns of millions of people living in north Bihar, which is India’s most flood-prone region. While you read this piece, there would be several villages in north Bihar facing floods or flood-like conditions.

There are villages along the India-Nepal border in north Bihar which face 66 flood events in a year (even outside of the monsoon season), as recorded by non-profit Megh Pyne Abhyian (MPA). And each flood event can last for several days depending upon the rainfall (locally and upstream in Nepal) and some other factors.

Millions of rural women in north Bihar suffer during these natural disasters, now exacerbated due to climate change and changing rainfall patterns. The women do not have access to a safe spot for maidan jana (a local term for defecation) during the floods. Underground twin-pit toilets built under Swachh Bharat Mission are no good in floods.

The massive floods of 2008-09 in north Bihar led to a new beginning, an innovation in the sanitation sector in flood-prone areas. Based on local conditions and community feedback, Megh Pyne Abhiyan designed a unique ecosan (ecological sanitation) toilet called Phaydemand Shauchalay (beneficial or productive toilet), particularly meant for the flood prone areas of north Bihar.

In 2016, I visited villages in Pashchim Champaran district of north Bihar where I first saw Phaydemand Shauchalay in a couple of villages in Nautan and Gaunaha blocks. Megh Pyne Abhiyan constructed them with the support of local communities and by training local masons.

As an environmental journalist, I was impressed with the design of these toilets, which require very little wash water and also produce humanure for farming.

Simply put, a Phaydemand Shauchalay has two specially-designed ecosan toilet pans placed above two concrete chambers, which are divided by a wall. The toilet and its chambers are constructed on a raised platform. This ensures that even during an extreme flood event, Phaydemand Shauchalay remains operational. That is its litmus test.

Each pan has a 10-inch diameter space in the centre, which leads to the chambers below, where the faeces is collected. Sloping away from this open space are two basins at the front and back with their own drainage. These collect urine and wash water, separately.

After defecating, the user sprinkles some ash or sawdust on the faeces and closes the lid of the excreta hole. To prevent insect attack, not even a drop of wash water or urine should get inside the excreta chambers.

The family uses one chamber of the ecosan toilet for the first five to six months, and once that is full, it shifts to the second chamber. Meanwhile, the faeces in the first chamber naturally convert into humanure over a period of time. It is then harvested and applied in the fields, which also cuts down the family’s expenses on fertiliser and pesticides.

The urine is also put to use. It is collected in a separate container, is mixed with water and sprinkled in the fields.

After my first encounter with Phaydemand Shauchalay, I revisited these toilets in the villages of Pashchim Champaran between 2016 and 2018. I met several rural women who said they were relieved that finally they had a safe and clean place to defecate, even during the floods. Adolescent girls benefitted the most.

A reason to revisit these ecosan toilets was also to check if they were “still functional” (we reporters are known to be suspicious creatures). And to my surprise, I did find them functional despite a couple of flood events in the area.

Then came the pandemic and the world staggered to a halt. Since then, when coronavirus changed our lives forever, I had this burning desire to revisit the Phaydemand Shauchalay and see if they were “still functional” (reporters are curious too!).

Finally, a month ago, I had an opportunity to revisit Naya Tola Bhishambharpur village, located within the embankments of Gandak river in Pashchim Champaran, which faces recurring floods, and where eight Phaydemand Shauchalay were constructed in 2017.

It was an overwhelming feeling to again meet villagers whom I had met in the pre-pandemic years and to see their families safe. But what cheered me the most was to find that six ecosan toilets were still functional in the village of 134 households, and women and their families, whom I had met five-six years ago, were still using them.

Geeta Devi excitedly took me to show her Phaydemand Shauchalay which had tiled walls. “My husband added these tiles to make our toilet look even better,” she said. “We have expanded our house and now the toilet is attached to our house,” she added.

Geeta Devi had also recently harvested humanure from her toilet and kept it safely to later apply in her sugarcane fields.

Chhathi Devi, who was the first woman to undertake construction of Phaydemand Shauchalay in Naya Tola Bhishambharpur village, also showed me her toilet — spic and span with no odour.

Clearly, the ecosan toilet had become a part of the daily lives of these rural women, who said they were finally able to defecate in a safe and clean space, even when the village was hit by floods, which is almost every monsoon as it is trapped inside the embankments of the Gandak river.

Eklavya Prasad, founder of Phaydemand Shauchalay, said that plans were underway to construct more flood-resilient ecosan toilets in Naya Tola Bhishambharpur village. A win-win solution for ecological sanitation and chemical-free farming, isn’t it?

Nidhi Jamwal is managing editor of Gaon Connection. Views are personal.