By Ally Jamah
As fresh water becomes scarce and pressure to reduce wastage mounts, sanitation experts are calling for a ban on the flush toilet because it is "unsustainable".
They sight car washing and flushing toilets as some of the ways that clean water is wasted. "Using clean water to flush toilets is wasteful considering how expensive it is to produce and distribute," says Mr Fred Dindi, the Waste Water Engineer at Nairobi Water and Sewerage Services Company.
The Managing Director Francis Mugo says: " We spend more than Sh300, 000 daily to treat and deliver water to Nairobi but going by the huge volumes that go to waste, it is clear that many consumers do not appreciate ," says The experts lobbied for more efficient toilets that use less or recycled water and "dry" toilets, which separate urine from faeces and thus eliminating the need to flush.
The flush toilet is increasingly coming under pressure as fresh water becomes scarce. Drought-prone Australia announced a new tax to discourage toilet flushing, with more robust sewage-producing homes facing stiffer penalties. The US banned toilets that use more than six litres of water per flush and environmentalists are pressing for further cutbacks saying 20 billion litres of water go down US toilets daily.
In China, the government is providing subsidies for toilets that have ‘digesters’ to convert waste into fertiliser in a bid to cut on water use.
Closer home, at the United Nations Office in Nairobi, the 140 flush toilets that used 13 litres per flush were recently modified to use four litres per flush. The new system allows one to use two litres after a short call. "It’s a very simple, cheap system that anyone can instal," says Nick Nuttall, United Nations Environmental Programme spokesperson.
