By Morton Saulo
Slowly and in droves, the young and old arrive at the bio-centre. Each with a bathing towel ready to pay for a warm shower.
This is Kibera slum, Katwekera village. One will be shocked by the availability of a warm bath deep in one of Africa’s most populous slum.
Thanks to a biotechnology centre run by Umande Trust, a local NGO.
Uknown to many, bathroom and latrine waste is to provide warm water and cooking gas.
This also marked the end of the famous ‘flying toilets’. For years, poor solid and drainage waste management and poor water supply contributed to disease outbreaks. But the new technology, which is relatively cheaper, came in handy.
It is composed of a convectional latrine, expansion chamber and the bio-digester. The pit latrine, which also serves the communal bathroom, is dried with ventilation pipes to remove odour. The bio-digester is a large underground dome.
Airless process
During normal use it is filled with urine combined with faeces and water from the bathroom. The bacteria in the sludge break down the pathogens in an airless process, producing the methane gas.
Peter Murigi, a project manager with Water and Sanitation for Urban poor who funded the Kibera project, said the system reduces the omission of methane gases being released to the ozone layer.
Said he: "This gas is used to cook and hit water for bathing at the facility."
He adds the challenge they face is acceptability by community to use the gas for cooking. Murigi says the sludge must remain in the system for at least 120 days.
"This is to ensure the sewage is well treated and rendered harmless by the time it leaves the system," he observes.
Mr Fredrick Amuok, who is in charge of the project, says they charge fairly.
"For bathroom use we charge Sh5 and Sh2 for toilet," he notes.