First Public Dry Toilet in Milot

During the first week of June teams from two communities in northern Haiti, Borgne and Milot, came together to build the first public dry toilet in Milot. Several weeks before the team from the Sant Teknoloji in Borgne built the first public dry toilet in Haiti in the small rural community of Robin, not far from Borgne. The toilet was inspired when a group from Milot travelled to Borgne to learn more about ecological sanitation and other projects of the Sant Teknoloji in Borgne.  After seeing the beautiful toilet constructed in Robin the team from Milot decided to waste no time in building one in Milot and within one week northern Haiti had not one, but two public dry toilets.  One mason and three volunteers from the technology center in Borgne came to Milot to train 2 local masons and help with the construction. Sarah Brownell, an engineer and co-founder of SOIL, shared her toilet design and the group made minor modifications. The end result was a beautiful toilet!

 

This is the toilet before the final artistic touches were put on, we will update the pictures when Sasha Kramer returns to Haiti in August.

How was the toilet built?

Days 1-3: 

The first three days the group in Milot did preparation work, purchasing materials, hiring masons and other workers and having the bricks made. The picture below shows the SOL (Sosyete Oganize pou Lanati) (link to SOL) team in front of the freshly made 340 bricks that were needed for the construction of the toilet (we actually started out with 260 but ended up needing extras to build a foundation and a lovely staircase).  A local mason was paid to make the concrete blocks on site so they did not have to be hauled far during the project.

From left to right: Lisius Orel (Marcorel), Evelyne Augustin (Chantale), Josapha Augustin (Alpha), Sasha Kramer, and Baudelair Magloire (Bobo).

Day 4:

The day the group from Borgne arrived in Milot we set to work in the afternoon to start the foundation.  The photo below shows Isnido, the mason from Borgne, outlining the base of the toilet.

Because this area may flood during parts of the year, we built a foundation to ensure that water would not get into the dry chambers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That first night, we also started the toilet seat using a mold from Centro de Innovacion en Tecnologia Alternativa A.C. (CITA). Concrete is made using fine river sand and cement and then poured into the greased and assembled mold. 

After the filling the mold and starting to lay the foundation, rain, darkness and exhaustion (the group from Borgne had traveled 5 hours on horrible roads that morning) forced us to stop for the night.

Day 5:

Foundation

The next morning we woke up early to finish the foundation so that it could be start drying, a process which takes about 5 hours.

 

 

 

 

 

Bathroom floor

While the foundation is drying there are a number of other things that can be worked on, including the concrete base that will serve as the floor of the bathroom.  We decided to make this on the ground and then try to lift it onto the toilet foundation and chambers once it was dry, what later proved to be a tricky maneuver.

 

 

 

 

The floor of the toilets has two holes for the toilet as this is a double vault dry toilet model, where one chamber is left to dry while the other is used.

 

 

After the concrete has dried enough to solidify the bucket molds are removed and the exact shape of the toilet is traced and cut into the floor.

Urine collection drum

 

 

 

 

 

While the floor and foundation were drying, we also worked on the drum for urine collection.  Without electricity, the hole had to be drilled by hand; one person holding the drum and the other patiently turning the drill bit. Two holes have to be drilled, one for the collection spigot and the other for the overflow pipe at the top.

 

 

 

 

 Broken toilet seat

We had a minor setback when we tried to free the dry toilet from the mold and it cracked to pieces. This was our first indication that concrete takes longer to dry in Milot than Borgne, because of the humidity.

 

Apparently 17 hours is not long enough for the concrete to dry in Milot.

 

 

So we just started over again, with a little more cement and patience on the second round

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lid for unused toilet chamber

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A lid is made to cover the hole which is not being used inside the toilet.  This lid only takes a few minutes to make but it is fun because you can carve anything you want into it. Our lid said “tout moun se moun” which means every person is a human being.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ventilation pipe

 

 

 

 

 

 

A ventilation pipe helps to prevent oders by drawing air out of the toilet through the roof, so that oders don’t flow back into the room through the toilet.

A small piece of the PVC vent tube is cut off and used to wedge a piece of screen into either end of a T, which comes off the top of the vent pipe to prevent rain from going into the dry toilet chambers. The screen prevents flies from entering. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 The pipe is painted black on the top to warm the air at the tip of the tube pulling air in that direction.

Starting the chambers

In the afternoon the foundation had dried enough to begin building the chambers that go below the toilet floor. These chambers were designed for 35 people to use one chamber for one year.  After that the toilet seat will be moved to above the other chamber and the first chamber is covered and allowed to sit for one year while the other is being used.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Day 6:

Finishing the chamber walls

 

It is important to leave a space between the two chambers for the base of the vent pipe to enter. Also, just behind the vent pipe a space must be left for the hoses carrying urine from the toilet and the urinal into the urine drum.

Once the back walls are built (with two openings for removing the dried compost) the urine drum can be placed at the back and cemented to the toilet.

Once the cement around the urine drum is dry a hole is dug next to it and filled with gravel. Then a pipe is attached to the top adapter on the drum and run into the gravel pit. If urine is not collected regularly for fertilizer, this will prevent the drum from overflowing.

Another small disaster with the floor

After letting the walls of the chambers dry for several hours we attempted to lift the concrete floor into place. As 15 people gathered around to lift the giant concrete slab, one half of it crumbled in our hands.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Not enough cement in the concrete. Another setback but, every problem has a solution.

Fixing the floor

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Not deterred, though we had hoped to finish the toilet that day, the masons put the unbroken half on the base and rebuilt the broken half on plywood in its place so it would not have to be moved. It took an extra half day but it gave the groups from Borgne and Milot had a chance to carve names into the floor.  After we fixed the floor the group from Borgne spent the evening at the historic ruins of the Palace San Souci in Milot.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Day 7

 Building the house

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On day 7 the masons got up at dawn and started to construct the house for the toilet.  On the left you can see the two chambers for the feces and the urine drum. In the center of the toilet, on the back wall is a urinal for men, made from cement with a wooden mold.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

While the house was being built we smoothed over the base for the urine drum and wrote in the moist cement. It says “pee for the garden”.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The toilet seat

 

 

 

 

 

Since our toilet wasn’t quite dry, we used a toilet seat that was made in April in Borgne and transported to Milot for a meeting.  The inside of the bowl has a separator for urine diversion. The group in Borgne also designed a metal lid for the toilet which is left down for peeing, that way all of the urine goes into the urine separator. When a person has to poop, you just raise the lid. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Installing the toilet

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The toilet was moved into place and the hoses attached to the urine drum. Once the urinal was dry the wooden mold was removed.

Connecting the urine hoses

One hose comes down from each of the holes in the floor (though only one will be used at a time) to drain from the urine separator to the collection drum. The hoses are connected by a T and drain together into the drum. The other hose comes directly from the urinal to the drum. After the hoses are all connected the chambers can be sealed. The bricks in the chamber doors are cemented to one another but not to the whole structure so that after one year of drying the bricks can be knocked in and the compost removed.

 

 

 

 

 

Just as we were getting close to finishing the rain came again and ended work for the day.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Day 8: 

Roof and door

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On the last day we put on the roof and door and sealed up the chambers.  Most of the group had to leave before the final artisitic touches were put on but the toilet looked beautiful and all of the tubes went to the right places. We got to use it once before leaving.

Checking the tubing

We tested out the tubing by pouring a bucket of water through the toilets and urinal and listening to it go into the drum and collecting it through the spigot.