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ENHANCING PERFORMANCE AND SOCIAL ACCEPTABILITY OF THE VENTILATED IMPROVED PIT TOILET
Impact/Purpose:
This project seeks to improve the cost-effectiveness and health benefits of ventilated improved pit (VIP) toilets by optimizing air flow through the toilet superstructure, pit, and vent pipe for the purposes of vector and odor control. In addition, social acceptability analysis will be done to help evaluate the potential of VIP toilets as an appropriate sanitation technology in rural communities.
Description:
More than 2.5 billion people worldwide lack access to sanitation facilities, and many regions are behind pace to meet the United Nations Millennium Development Goals’ target of reducing by half the proportion of the population in this predicament by the year 2015. Furthermore, millions of tons per year of human waste go uncollected and untreated around the world, which seriously threatens ecosystem health as well as human health. In rural and peri-urban areas, water-less sanitation technologies such as VIP toilets are often considered appropriate sanitation solutions. Improving the performance, cost-effectiveness, and social acceptability of these systems can help to solve the global sanitation crisis. Students on the design team will benefit from multi-disciplinary and intercultural perspectives and will develop the skills necessary for invention and promotion of appropriate technologies. The students will enroll in a new course on appropriate technology design, and project outcomes will also be integrated into existing international programs at Michigan Tech University.