The (not very good) $300 Nepal toilet
CHDS staff have tracked down one of the cheap toilet programs only to discover that the residents have to put in over 6 times the contribution of the donor (who contribute A$41.70) to complete the toilet. And what do they get if the toilet is completed… by our standards, not very much at all.
How can these programs pretend to be improving health and sanitation when all the key elements of hand washing, water availability, waste treatment and ongoing maintenance are not even given passing consideration.
HH and CHDS Nepal agree that the many ‘cheap toilet programs’ should forget about the quantity of toilets built, forget the smiling kids on promotional material and concentrate on the detailed work of improving the safe disposal of waste and helping poor villagers improve their health. If you want to donate to a working toilet HH and CHDS Nepal can guarantee your money will be spent on the toilet and not go down the toilet.
See the budget and picture of a ‘completed’ toilet below. Special thanks CHDS Nepal and to Surya Lama and Ashis Lama for getting this information together.
waste water from the toilet
holding down the roof
poor inside finishes makes the toilet hard to clean