Tackling the Problem

In terms of tackling open defecation, the solution is not as simple as increasing the number of toilets and access to them. An Indian Government report released in 2012 (2) revealed that 69 per cent of the population had access to a toilet but found only 33 per cent actually used them. 

The question is, why the gap in usage? The UNICEF field team recognise that mind-set has a role to play here. Previous campaigns for increasing toilet usage have focused on germ theory – how the lack of hand washing and open defecation can lead to the spread of microbes which then can cause illness. Educational health promotion methods like this have been largely ineffective at motivating people to use toilets (3).  It was recognised by the UNICEF field team in West Bengal that an added incentive was needed to persuade people to want to use toilets or latrines.

The answer to these two problems (methane gas from excreta and carbon dioxide from indoor stoves) comes in the form of an innovation – toilet-linked biogas plants underpinned by a carbon credit scheme. The word ‘plant’ here implies a device. Two districts in West Bengal, India were chosen to pilot this scheme where, approximately, 19,817Kg of methane gas is produced from waste alone each day.

UNICEF worked with local NGO, Ramakrishna Mission Lokashiksha Parishad (RKMLP), in two districts in West Bengal, India to pilot the bio-gas plant scheme. The project was spear-headed by Shyam Dave, Water, Sanitation and Hygiene specialist with UNICEF’s West Bengal Field Office.  UNICEF’s role was to oversee the project as well as provide guidance and funding for the carbon credit rewards linked to the biogas plants.