Humanure
WCs “water closets” need fresh drinking water to flush away human fecies and urine. That wastes a lot of precious water and at the same time misues the excrements that should naturally be transformed and be fed back into the natural cycle. As human beings are natural and a part of nature, for millions of years human excrements – before inventing the WC – have been used to build, make fire or for other purposes. Now it’s time to reinvent these tequniques.
At the Tchambalakate farm a EcoSan toilet has been built and is now used. Fecies and urine are collected separately.
After a period of 6 months (in tropical climate) the transformed fecies have become a pathogen free natural fertilizer that can be applied to beds some weeks prior of sowing or planting seedlings.
The urine is collected in a recipent and after 30 days of the last use is transformed into a nitrogen rich fertilizer that is mixed with water in ratio of 1:5 and then applied to beds 30 days prior to planting.
Literature / Links:
The Humanure Handbook / Compost Toilet Handbook by Joseph Jenkins
Terra Preta – Die schwarze Revolution aus dem Regenwald by Ute Scheub, Haiko Pieplow, Hans-Peter Schmidt
ECOSAN – Ecological compost latrines with urine separation
Sustainable Sanitation Alliance