Goa, by March next year will soon have around 600 eco-friendly toilets. This massive project has been undertaken by the Mineral Foundation of Goa, which will construct such toilets in the mining belt over the next four months. The pilot launch of the prototype has already taken place a few days back. The cost for this entire project will be a whopping Rs 3.3 crore. Each toilet costs over Rs 50,000, the funds coming from the Mineral Foundation of Goa’s kitty.
The Foundation has committed to taking the Prime Minister’s agenda of ensuring toilets in the country to eliminate open defecation and cultivate awareness of hygiene amongst children and adults. As a result of which it has initiated a project “Neetal Gaon – Sunder Goa” (Clean Village, Beautiful Goa). The objective is to construct toilets for Anganwadis in rental premises and select individual households which do not have a toilet across the 32 village panchayats.
Toilets for selected households from each panchayat in the mining belt will be constructed. An elaborate due diligence was done by the Foundation based on various parameters and critical indicators, viz: economic condition of the beneficiary, availability of toilets in the past etc. based on which the beneficiaries have been selected.
The structure of the toilet was designed in consultation with the Institute of Indian Interior Designs (IIID), Goa, so that it is aesthetically appealing and gainfully utilizes the space. These toilets are designed with two leach pit design and promote minimal usage of water after its use. They will not have water tap connection as the leach pits are
designed to handle minimum water.
The toilet design is essentially a square form, chamfered on one side.
The access to the toilet is from the chamfered side which opens up the diagonal length of the square hence allowing adequate space for movement inside. The materials used for construction are laterite, mud bricks and concrete.
There is no cement plaster on the external walls keeping the natural look of the material used, also most of the materials are sourced locally making it cost-effective. The twin leach-pit design is adapted for Sulabh International where the pits are rotated after every three years. The resulting manure can be sold out which will contribute to the cost of empting the pits.
“Mud, bricks, laterite and other locally available material, when used in its original form, not only makes it cost-effective but also stabilizes the temperature of any living space. Using natural material in its pure form allows us to build living spaces suitable for our climate, without over exploiting the natural resources,” said architect Pallavi Ghate Satardekar.
