Health is not always the main reason why people want to have clean toilets, better water supplies, or improved hygiene. Other needs may include:

Privacy: A toilet can be as simple as a deep hole in the ground. But the need for privacy makes it important for a toilet to have a good shelter. Making a door or enclosed entrance to a toilet, or building it away from where people usually walk, will make it nicer to use. The best shelters are simple and are built from local materials.

Safety: If a toilet is badly built it can be dangerous to use. And if it is far from the home, women may be in danger of sexual violence when they take care of their sanitation needs. For a toilet to be safe it must be well-built and in a safe place.

Comfort: People will more likely use a toilet with a comfortable place to sit or squat, and a shelter large enough to stand up and move around in. They will also be more likely to use a toilet that is close to the house and that gives protection from wind, rain, or snow.

Cleanliness: If a toilet is dirty and smelly, no one will want to use it - and it may spread disease. Sharing the task of cleaning or paying for cleaning with money or other benefits will help to ensure that toilets are kept clean.

Respect: A well-kept toilet brings status and respect to its owner. Often this is a very important reason for people to spend the money and effort to build one. Safe water for washing and drinking is also important for health. So are other kinds of cleanliness such as ensuring that women have a way to keep clean during monthly bleeding.

In the rest of this booklet, we describe several kinds of toilets that can be built using local resources. No one toilet design is right for every community or household, so it is important to understand the benefits of each choice.

Note: These drawings show toilets with no doors so you can see inside them.

When deciding where to build a toilet, make sure you will not pollute wells or groundwater. The risk of groundwater pollution depends on local conditions such as the type of soil, the amount of moisture in the area, and the depth of the groundwater. But some general rules can ensure safety under most conditions.

The bottom of the pit (if it is a pit toilet) or the chamber (if it is a compost toilet) should be at least 2 ½ meters above the groundwater. If you dig a pit for a toilet and the soil is very wet, or if the pit fills with water, this is a bad place to put a toilet. Keep in mind that water levels are much higher in the wet season than in the dry season. Do not build pit toilets on ground that gets flooded. When there is a risk of groundwater pollution from pit toilets, consider building an above-ground toilet, such as the dry toilet.

Groundwater flows downhill. So, if there is no choice but to build a toilet in a place where there is a risk of groundwater pollution, place the toilet downhill from nearby wells.

A well-made concrete platform will last many years. One 50 kilo bag of cement is enough to make 4 platforms or 2 platforms and 2 ring beams. You will also need reinforcing wires, bricks, and boards to form the mold, and a piece of wood cut to the shape of a keyhole to mold the hole. This platform is square, but you could make a round one.

Because germs and worms can collect near the hole, foot rests to stand on will reduce the risk of health problems. If people prefer to sit, make a round hole and a concrete seat. To make a mold, use 2 buckets of different sizes, one inside the other. There must be several inches of space between sides of the inner bucket and the outer bucket. Weight the inner bucket with rocks so it stays on the bottom, and pour concrete into the space between buckets. To make a dry toilet, you can use this platform with a urine-separating toilet bowl

1. Dig a hole less than 1 meter across and at least 2 meters deep.

2. Line the top of the pit with stones, brick, concrete or other material that will support a platform and prevent the pit from collapsing. A concrete ring beam works well.

3. Make a platform and a shelter to put over the pit. A concrete platform works best, but local materials like logs or bamboo and mud can work too. If you make a platform from logs, use wood that is termite-proof and does not rot easily.

A ring beam is a square piece of cast concrete with an open center. It is set into the top of a toilet pit to support the platform and shelter, and to keep the pit walls from collapsing. The ring beam described here can be used along with the platform described below for all pit toilets. Adjust the size of the ring beam to fit the width of the pit.

The VIP toilet is a kind of closed pit toilet that reduces smells and flies.

Wind blows across the top of the vent pipe and carries away smells. The shelter keeps the toilet dark so the flies in the pit will go towards the light at the top of the pipe, get trapped by the wire screen, and die.

1. Dig the pit 2 meters deep and 1 ½ meters wide. Line the top with bricks or a concrete ring beam sized to fit the pit (see chapter above). If the shelter will be very heavy (made of brick, concrete or heavy wood), line the whole pit, except the bottom. Leave gaps in the brick work to let liquids out.

2. Make a platform. See the guidelines on page 30, but make the platform a little bigger: 1 ½ meters by 1 meter, with 2 holes in it. The second hole, about 15 centimeters wide near an edge of the platform, is for the vent pipe.

3. Build a shelter over the pit and platform.

4. Fit a vent pipe at least 15 centimeters wide over the smaller hole. Paint the vent black to absorb heat and improve ventilation. Cover the top of the vent pipe with a mosquito screen (aluminum or stainless steel last longest) and a "hat" to protect from rain. Make the vent pipe rise at least 50 centimeters above the roof so the wind can draw out odors.

Keep the hole covered when not in use. Keep the shelter semi-dark inside. Keep the toilet clean and wash the platform often.

If the shelter is not dark enough, or if the hole is left uncovered, flies will not enter the pipe. The vent pipe may get blocked by spider webs. If the shelter has no roof, or if the screen breaks or comes off the vent pipe, there is little fly control.

Ecological toilets turn feces and urine into soil conditioner and fertilizer. This improves people's health and the environment by preventing germs from spreading and turning harmful human waste into something useful.

Ecological toilets are safer for groundwater than other toilets because they sit above ground or use shallow pits. They produce fertilizer and they can be used for many years. These toilets need more maintenance than pit toilets (but not pour-flush toilets), so it is important that people understand how they work.

Rich, healthy soil needs organic matter - what is left when plants and other living things die and decompose. This natural process of organic matter breaking down into soil is sometimes called composting.

Around the world, farmers compost their wastes and add them into the soil. This keeps the soil full of nutrients for growing crops. Just as people need nutrients from food to grow strong and healthy, plants need nutrients in soil to grow strong and bear fruit.

There are 2 main types of ecological toilets: "compost toilets" and "urine-diverting" or "dry" toilets. Both kinds can create safe fertilizer. Many people call both kinds "compost toilets". But there are some important differences.

In several towns in Morelos, Mexico, many people use ecological dry toilets. One neighborhood called La Cienega, or The Swamp, has a special need for dry toilets. Because the neighborhood is in a wet, lowland area, pit toilets do not work. To solve the problem, members of the community bought a special kind of toilet bowl that separates urine from feces. These toilet bowls are built locally in small workshops that support several workers. The workers train community groups how to use these new toilet bowls.

Many people in La Cienega make a living by growing and selling fruit trees and other plants. The first people in the neighborhood to use dry toilets discovered that they could use the urine and compost from their toilets as fertilizer for the trees. When their neighbors saw the trees grow big and healthy, they too wanted to try these new toilets that give free fertilizer.

Now almost every family in La Cienega uses these toilets. The local workshop is busy making them, and the community has grown both healthier and wealthier.

Level the ground and place a concrete ring beam where you want the toilet. Inside the ring beam, dig a pit 1 meter deep, and secure the ring beam in place. Make a platform to put over the pit. Build a light shelter that will be easy to move.

The 2 pit compost toilet is like the simple compost toilet for treeplanting, but rather than planting a tree in the pit, the compost is dug out and used in the garden or fields. It is an easy way to turn excrement into fertilizer for almost no cost. Because the waste is mixed with soil in a shallow pit, allowed to dry out and kill germs, and then removed, this toilet tends to be safer for groundwater than traditional pit toilets.

Dig 2 pits 1 to 1 ½ meters deep, 1 meter wide, and 30 centimeters apart. Add a lining or ring beam to both pits. Place a platform and a simple shelter over one pit, and a concrete or wood cover over the second pit. Use the first pit until it is nearly full. A family of 6 will fill the pit in about 1 year.

1. When the first pit is almost full, top it up with 30 centimeters of soil and cover it with a board or concrete slab. Move the platform and shelter to the other pit, and use it until it is nearly full. Leave the first pit alone - or, after it has settled for 2 months, add more soil and plant a seasonal vegetable like tomatoes right in the pit. Since the feces are still being processed, it is best to avoid root crops such as carrots and potatoes.

2. When the second pit is full, empty the first pit with a shovel. Wear gloves, and wash hands after handling the fresh fertilizer.

3. Store the contents in bags or buckets for later use, or add them to a compost pile or garden. (To know when the contents are ready. Move the platform and shelter back to the first pit, while the contents of the second pit settle.

Dry toilets do not use pits. They are built above ground, so it is easier to remove the contents. They also have a toilet bowl with separate compartments that keep urine and feces apart. This helps the contents of the toilet stay dry, killing germs and reducing smells. This also allows the urine to be used as fertilizer. Because they are built above ground and lined on the bottom, they are safe for groundwater. Dry toilets are more costly to build than pit toilets. Their safe use requires training, because they are used differently than pit toilets and water-based toilets. And it takes some work to keep them well maintained. But they are very good for people who want to produce fertilizer from their wastes. They are also a good option in places where:

This dry toilet has 2 chambers where feces break down into safe fertilizer. One side is used while the feces on the other side dry and break down. A special toilet bowl separates urine into a hose for collection in a container outside of the toilet. After about a year, the dried feces are removed and added to a compost pile or used on fields or gardens. If the urine is collected in a container, it can be mixed with water and used as fertilizer.

Make sure no water gets in the toilet chamber.

The contents of a dry toilet are ready to remove when they are dry, have little or no smell, and look like ordinary soil. For this to happen, they should be kept dry inside the toilet chamber for 1 year.

When you think the contents should be ready to remove, open the chamber. If the pile is wet, add dry plant matter or soil mixed with ash and let it sit for several weeks more. If the pile is dry and does not have a strong smell, it is ready. Remove it with a shovel.

After drying out for 1 year, most germs will be dead and the material should be safe to handle and to add directly to garden soil. But if there is any doubt, the contents of the toilet can be given extra treatment to ensure that all germs are killed. To completely dry the contents of the toilet, store it in bags or buckets for a few weeks. To heat it up, leave it in a dry, sunny area, or add it to a compost pile.
Since there still may be some germs, it is important to wear gloves and shoes when handling the contents, and to wash well after emptying the toilet.

Some farmers use urine mixed with water as a fertilizer because urine carries valuable nutrients like nitrogen and phosphorous that can help plants grow. Urine is much safer to handle than feces. However, the same nutrients that make it a good fertilizer can pollute water sources. Also, it can carry blood-flukes (schistosomiasis) - common in only some parts of the world. Because of this, it is important not to put urine into water sources, or near where people drink or bathe.

Store urine for a few days in a closed container before use. This will kill any germs it contains, and will also prevent nutrients from escaping into the air. To make fertilizer, dilute the urine with water - mix 3 containers of water for every 1 of urine. (Undiluted, fresh urine is too strong and may damage plants.) You can fertilize plants with diluted urine as often as 3 times a week. Plants fertilized with urine can grow as well as plants grown with chemical fertilizers, and need less water. Plants that make edible leaves, like spinach, grow best. Always wash hands after handling urine.

Adding compost to urine, and letting this mixture ferment (rot and turn sour), can create new soil for planting.

The new soil can be used as compost or to top up another container.

The toilets in this book are only some of the options for ecological sanitation. They can be improved and adapted to meet the needs of different communities. Some things that will make a dry toilet work better are:

Build the toilet so that the chamber doors face the sun, and paint the door panels black. This will make the chambers heat up, improve ventilation, and kill germs faster.

Laying bamboo, corn stalks, branches, or other dry plant matter on the floor of the chamber before use will help air flow through the feces for faster drying.

People in India have adapted the dry toilet to let both urine and wash water drain into a bed of reeds.

Pour-flush toilets use water to flush waste into a pit. These toilets are common in both urban and rural areas where water is used for anal cleansing. They are not much more costly than pit toilets. Because well-built pour-flush toilets prevent smells, they can be built in or near the home.

Pour-flush toilets use a plastic, fiberglass, or cement bowl or squatting pan set into a concrete platform. The bowl or pan often has a "water-seal trap" that prevents smells and insect breeding in the wet pits. The concrete platform is placed directly over a pit. Or it can be connected by pipe to a pit or 2 pits.

When there is 1 pit, the toilet is used until full, and then it must be emptied before it can continue to be used. When there are 2 pits, there is a valve that directs waste towards the pit in use. The first pit is used until near full. Then waste is diverted into the second pit. Soil is then added to the first pit. Its contents are left to settle for at least 2 years, until it can be emptied without risk of illness from germs. The second pit is used until the first pit is emptied, and then it is allowed to settle as the first pit is used again.

Except under very wet conditions or in places with high ground water, it is safe to build pour-flush toilets within 3 meters of wells. In wet soil conditions the toilets should be at least 20 meters from wells.

Pit size for a family of 5 should be 1 meter deep and about 1 meter across. This will allow the toilet to be used for about 3 years before needing to be emptied.

Water must be poured in after every use. Pouring a little water in before using will also help keep the pan clean.

Clean the toilet daily. To clean the squatting pan, use detergent powder and a long-handled brush. The pits can overflow if:

After about 3 years of use the first pit will be full. Divert the waste into the second pit, while the first pit rests.

Remove the pit cover, add a layer of soil about 30 centimeters (2 hands-widths) deep, and replace the cover. After 2 years, the contents can be removed with a shovel and used as fertilizer.