Earthcharter

ECUS Zambia Partnership Update: Hands-on training teaches participants to build waterless toilets

Thursday, 11 February 2010 18:35

The ECUS partnership program in Zambia, COPE (Community Action on Poverty and Environment), recently conducted the second session of its Waterless Toilet Trainings, providing hands-on training to 34 participants through the construction of a waterless toilet. This 5-day training project was conducted in southeast Zambia in Chilupula Village in Chief Bunda Bunda`s Chiefdom,in the Chongwe District, 90 kilometers from Lusaka, the capital city of Zambia.

Over the 5-day training participants learned how to build a waterless toilet, leaving with the necessary practical skills to construct a waterless toilet on their own. Participants assisted in the complete construction from material procurement to the actual digging of the toilet tank and erection of a toilet house.

The goal of the training project is not only to provide functioning sanitary facilities to the communities, but to provide local Zambians with the skills to build waterless toilets on their own. At the end of the training, which was led by Victor Phiri, and Collins K. Mbewe, chairperson of the Workers' Education of Zambia, alongside Abraham Simon an advisor from Namibia, the majority of participants expressed that they were confident in being able to replicate the project on their own.