The Good Toilet: Treatment and Valorisation of the waste streams

Abstract

The Good Roll, a company based in Amsterdam, produces 100% tree-friendly and sustainable toilet paper. Half of their profit goes to their foundation, building toilet facilities all over Ghana, called The Good Toilet. With the concept of The Good Toilet, they want to provide access to sanitation for all Ghanaians, with an economically viable facility, and with the least environmental impact. They want to build toilets all over Ghana, going from school projects to household and community level toilets. The Good Toilet is a whole community centre with toilets, showers, hand washing stations, and a store. There are already 285 toilets built in a first design. This current design is examined in this thesis, as after a field trip in November 2021 some non-foreseen problems came to light. During this field visit samples of the used borehole water were taken and brought back to The Netherlands. The current treatment system, a solid liquid separator and activated coal filter was checked as well. The water used in the facilities seemed to be contaminated with E.Coli, and the effluent stream was entirely clogged. This raised the first research question, namely how the current system can be free from an environmental and health hazard. Secondly it was examined what a new design for the second version of The Good Toilet could be. For this interviews were conducted with people from the emergency context, professors, and people with experience building toilets in low-income countries. Next to this, a literature research was performed and case studies were examined. With this information and estimated guesses a muti-criteria decision matrix within a framework of requirements was created, deciding upon suitable treatment choices for The Good Toilet 2. Next to technical considerations, the social aspect of building toilets in low-income countries was looked at as well, as this could increase the usage of The Good Toilet and therefore decrease open defecation practices in Ghana. For this, inspiration was taken from the SaniTweaks document of Oxfamwash. Combining the technical and social aspects of building toilets, an advice could be drawn up to The Good Roll for their projects in the future