How toilet initiative is empowering slum dwellers economically

By Lillian Aluanga-Delvaux

On a hot and dusty afternoon at the Undugu grounds in Kibera, Mr Felix Jak’Omolo is hard at work making entries onto a white sheet of paper.

Jak’Omolo is stationed at one of four drop points-located in Silanga, Mashimoni and Laini Saba areas in Kibera, where used biodegradable bags, commonly known as Peepoos, are gathered before transmission to a treatment plant where they are converted into fertiliser.

A Peepoo is a personal, single-use portable toilet that sanitises human waste thus preventing it from contaminating the environment.

At the top of his list for the week is Ruth Auma or Mama Obama who has been depositing 300 bags each day. With each bag earning the collector a refund of one shilling, Auma will take home a tidy sum of Sh1,500 in five days. Closely following Auma is Mariana, who will make at least Sh1,280 from her collections of used Peepoos.

Jak’Omolo reconciles the number of collectors with the number of bags deposited daily, as he explains how the portable toilets have improved relations among neighbours.

“I hear the stories from the collectors. They say before Peepoos were introduced, neighbours often quarrelled when a child relieved themselves in front of somebody else’s house or a flying toilet landed on someone’s roof,” he says.

It is already 1pm and there is little activity at the drop point that is open between 6am and noon each day for the stream of collectors to deposit their ‘catch’.

The drop point is a simple metal structure with a wire rack inside, atop which sits a water tank and some soap. Attached outside the cubicle is a tap, which Jak’Omolo detaches from the structure as he closes for the day, in what he terms ‘a security measure’.

“If I leave it (tap) out here it will be stolen. It is important to have running water because this is used by the collectors to wash their hands after dropping the bags,” he says.

Jak’Omolo talks of a time when the dusty grounds were often littered with polythene bags commonly known as ‘flying toilets’.

“It was terrible. You couldn’t even sit here for long. But now with the use of Peepoos the air is much fresher and the grounds cleaner,” he says.

As he speaks, Eunice Akinyi, one of the biodegradable bags sales ladies, drops by.

Akinyi has been involved with the initiative since field tests were conducted in 2008.

She hawks the bags from door to door within the slum, and chuckles as she recalls earlier days.

“People would laugh at us because of what we were selling but now they see the importance of the bags and what positive it is doing to the environment,” she says.

Each roll has 28 Peepoo bags and costs Sh50, earning Auma Sh20 per roll sold. On a good day Akinyi sells up to 22 rolls, which can dwindle to 10 when business is slow.

But this she says enables her put food on the table for her family.

Jak’Omolo also recalls the start of the project, about three years ago, when only 100 bags would be deposited at the drop point in a day.

“The idea of using Peepoos was alien to most people explaining the low usage. Today collections stand at nearly 1,000 bags per day, pointing to a rise in use of the bags and their general acceptance in the community,” he tells The Standard on Saturday.

Peepoo bags are made of biodegradable bio-plastic, which meets European Union standards. It is believed that nearly 40 per cent of the world’s population has no acess to even the simplest latrine for their personal use and it is hoped that initiatives like the Peepoos will ease the numbers. Today there are more than one billion people living in urban slums with the number expected to double by 2020, even as infrastructure in informal settlements fails to keep up with the numbers.

The biodegradable bags have also come in handy in emergency situations especially in refugee camps and those for internally displaced persons, offering a unique opportunity for effective disease prevention that can save lives.

Peepoos schools project manager Rahab Mbochi talks of the initial difficulties in advocating use of the biodegradable bags within the slum.

“Talking about human waste and its disposal was considered embarrassing and one had to find innovative ways to broach the subject,” she says. But while it may have been easier to talk to children about Peepoos, addressing a similar issue with adults isn’t always easy.

Says Medina Abubakar, another officer with the Peepoo project, who was in Pakistan when floods rendered thousands homeless in 2012.

“There are cultural and religious inhibitions that initially made it difficult to talk about Peepoos. But with time, communities open up to the use of the bags once they understand the concept because they see the benefits of improved sanitation,” she says.