Scientific African (Jul 2020)
Early live-prototype testing of a low-cost latrine technology for rural and peri‑urban communities: The case of a modified pour-flush latrine
Abstract
Adequate and improved sanitation solutions are crucial for the protection of public and environmental health. But Ghana continues to face serious constraints to meeting the sanitation needs of its rural and peri‑urban folks due to low uptake of household toilets. The key factors that have contributed to the low sanitation coverage in Ghana among others include: the extensive use of public toilet, poverty, lack of space, high cost of latrine technologies and operation and maintenance difficulties. In an effort to promote the uptake of household latrines by people living in the rural and peri‑urban communities, a new latrine concept was developed and tested. This new latrine technology is essentially a low-cost pour-flush system improved with high-density polyethylene (HDPE) barrel for excreta storage and porous filter plate for excreta separation for the purposes of resource recovery. This study examines the suitability of the low-cost modified pour-flush latrine (MPFL) for use in the rural and peri‑urban areas. In this study, a live-prototype of the MPFL system was built and tested in Donuase, a peri‑urban community in the Ejisu-Juaben Municipal Assembly in the Ashanti region of Ghana. The cost of the MPFL was assessed in comparison with three other existing and widely used latrine technologies in Ghana. The MPFL was also tested for its performance with regards to effluent quality and user acceptability. The study was conducted using laboratory analysis and survey questionnaires. The results showed that the MPFL actually provides a low-cost option to households by saving at least half of the cost required to construct any of the three other latrine technologies. This notwithstanding, with the exception of pH and turbidity, effluent parameters (total dissolved solids, chemical oxygen demand, biological oxygen demand, faecal coliform and total coliform) did not meet the recommended Ghana EPA standards permissible for discharge into water bodies although there were significant contaminants removal. Higher removal rates (97–98%) were recorded for faecal and total coliforms and fair removal rate (66%) for turbidity. The MPFL also received very high level of users’ satisfaction and all respondents were willing to pay for the system. Nonetheless, majority of the respondents offered prices that were lower than the cost at which the latrine was produced (GHS 560, US$ 140). Significant understanding is gained on how to make the MPFL system more attractive to potential users and ways to improve the effluent quality.
