Type: For-Profit
PHASE: Pilot
CATEGORY: Health
LOCATION: Gazipur, Bangladesh
Toilet+
Asia

Log in or register to follow or vote for this project.
We introduce a "Sanitation Chain" in which villagers face peer pressure to stop open defecation, get microcredit to purchase toilets through cooperatives, and earn money by selling human waste and bio-waste to us

Standings & Awards

1313 out of 1313 in Asia
284 out of 284 in Health
573 out of 573 in Pilot
555 out of 555 in For-Profit
4003 out of 4003 Overall
Initiating a self-scalable social sanitation chain to ensure a HEALTHIER, RICHER, and SAFER community

DEFECATION! DISEASE! DEATH! In Bangladesh, each year 69000 children die from diarrhea largely because of unhygienic sanitation. 68% of the villagers use unhygienic pit latrines or defecate openly. Though both govt and NGOs are trying to solve this problem, their efforts largely fail because poor villagers- 1)simply lack motivation to change their sanitation behavior or 2)can’t afford the shift to safe sanitation.

WE INTRODUCE TOILET+, A HYGIENIC AND AFFORDABLE SANITATION SOLUTION.It's a urine diverting dry toilet and is structurally similar to Ecosan. It can recycle 100% waste to produce organic fertilizer and is flood resistant. Toilet+ ($110 value) is made affordable to the villagers through microcredit from partner MFI.

WE OFFER COLLECTIVE PROFIT & RESPONSIBILITY. Households form cooperatives,apply for microcredit,  and become collectively responsible to repay the total monthly installments to MFI. Member households get toilets from us and we get paid by MFI. Members sell waste (human and other bio-waste) to us and we convert waste into organic fertilizer for selling to agro firms. By selling waste, a cooperative gets $70 a month (75% of the collective installments) and each household pays only $1.3 out of pocket to repay the collective monthly installments. Members create strong peer pressure on one another to use toilet so that they can repay collective loan easily. 

THE MODEL TURNS TO A SELF-SCALABLE AND SELF-SUSTAINABLE SANITATION CHAIN. Cooperatives will continue to earn revenue from sale of waste after repaying the microcredit in 2.25 years. Understanding the high profitability of financing toilets, enthusiastic cooperative members will start lending non-users to purchase Toilet+ just like MFIs. Users will use peer pressure to make other non-users purchase and use Toilet+ with cooperative financing. Thus cooperative will grow and members will earn more revenue from sale of waste from their financed toilets.

WE IGNITE THE SPARK, COMMUNITY MAKES IT A REVOLUTION. 1)The more a family uses Toilet+, the more it earns 2)Many Cooperatives will finance others’ toilets as a profitable business and thus expand the size of the cooperative. 3)Fewer fatal diseases, cleaner environment, and more income will improve the living standard of community permanently.

THUS WE EMPOWER THE VILLAGERS SO THAT THEY CAN REVOLUTIONIZE THE WHOLE SANITATION SCENARIO.

FIVE PROJECT QUESTIONS Required (60 - 90 minutes)

1. What is your innovation? 
We are the first to give villagers responsibility and incentive so that they can solve their sanitation issue themselves. We build a sanitation chain, where villagers avail microcredit from MFI to purchase Toilet+, and motivate each other to use them so that they can repay collective microcredit. Both before and after repaying microcredit, villagers have incentive to use Toilet+, and motivate others to do the same. Thus we act as the catalyst to change villagers' sanitation behavior permanently.
2. Who gains the most? 
The rural poor who can’t afford safe toilets or defecate openly gets maximum benefit by- 1)BEHAVIOR CHANGE: Peer pressure from fellow villagers works as a powerful catalyst to permanently change the unhygienic sanitation practices in village. 2)PERMANENT INCOME: Waste selling opportunity creates a stable income source for the community that continues onward. 3) IMPROVED LIVING STANDARD: A healthy community and environment will be ensured through the sustainable sanitation chain.
3. Who pays? 
VILLAGERS: Cooperative pays back 75% of its members’ loan by selling waste. Each household pays only $1.3/month and after two years gains the ownership of toilet ($110 value). MFI: MFI pays us $110 for each toilet construction and later MFI is paid back by the cooperatives in two year period. EXPORT ORIENTED AGRO FIRM: Having high demand for organic feature, it purchases fertilizer produced from waste at $.08/KG from us
4. What is your success? 
YEAR 1: Each family saves $9.85 from yearly medical expense. YEAR 3: Household Generates $3.9 a month from sale of waste and additional income from financing others’ toilets. Environmental pollution reduces with more people purchasing toilets. YEAR 5: Exponential growth of cooperatives will create a sanitation chain that will revolutionize the livings of rural poor by offering a sustainable source of income and healthy environment. And numerous children will be saved from diarrhea caused death
5. How will you do it? 
MOTIVATION: Religious leaders, along with trained salespeople motivate villagers and create an environment where none can even think of open defecation or pit latrines to avoid public humiliation. FERTILIZER SALE: Fertilizer will be sold to large agro firms having constant demand and willingness to pay high for organic feature. SUPPORT: We will support cooperatives to grow, replicate, and sustain. Rural sanitation pathfinders will be created and they will turn this into a social revolution.