Completing the VIP Toilet

At the Ministry of Health's invitation, all the VHW students went out to Etas village just outside Vila to see the VIP toilet slab they had created put into position in the village. We piled into 2 mini-buses and the back of the MoH truck and drove about 15 minutes out to the village. 

I was a bit disappointed with this part of the demonstration - the pit had certainly been dug but the top edge had not been properly framed up ready for the slab to sit over it. Iou Pousin, the National VHW Co-ordinator did give a very good description of what needed to be done to complete the toilet.

Our slab was carefully positioned so it didn't fall into the hole, which was about 1.5m deep.

The cylinder that forms the seat was roughly positioned. It eventually needs to be sealed to the slab to stop anything nasty escaping onto the floor.

One of the men demonstrated how the fly mesh is fixed over the top of the vent pipe, however the vent pipe is supposed to extend up past the roof of the toilet. 

Here is a WHO diagram of how it is supposed to work once finished. It is still a long-drop, but much improved on the most basic design. Smells get vented up out of people's noses, and flies try to go out through the vent pipe but die in the pipe instead. A reduction in flies directly impacts on the general health of the village. It is an effective and cheap solution for sites where there is insufficient water supply for a flush toilet.

When the contents of the pit is nearing the floor slab, a new pit must be dug and the superstructure moved to this new location. A tree can be planted on the site of the old pit, so it is also environmentally friendly.