A Friend and member of the Compost Auraria, here on campus wrote this interesting note about composting toilets. She is helping local Haitians with a composting toilet project. She has also written a picture book called 'If You Give A Town A Toilet'. Please read her interesting story from Haiti below.
I've been working on a composting toilet project in Leogane, Haiti that is about to take off. We're trying to teach hygiene and sanitation to the community, secure funding, and pave the way for composting toilets. We already have a few prototypes. I'm trying to recruit international and local volunteers to the project and for my first bit of propoganda, I wrote an adult picture book called, "If You Give A Town A Toilet." There's only one handwritten copy that I scrawled out in a notebook, but it's already at the top of the HODR bestseller list. :) A Creole copy and an e-copy are in the works, but in the meantime, check out why this project is so important.
IF YOU GIVE A TOWN A TOILET
If you give a town a composting toilet, you will give Haitians the ability to meet their basic human needs. By moving away from pit toilets and open defecation, feces will no longer contaminate the water supply. With cleaner water, people will be less likely to contract diseases like typhoid and cholera. With fewer cases of disease, the high infant mortality rate will decline. These healthy babies can grow up and use the compost from the toilet to grow healthy food for their families. This decreases malnutrition and dependence on foreign aid. If a child is able to grow more food than her family needs, she can sell the surplus to generate income. With her profits, she can afford to send her children to school and can build a better house to keep them safe from hurricanes and flooding. And her educated children can take the compost from their toilets and restore the soils depleted from erosion caused by rapid deforestation. In the rich compost soil, the children can plant trees. These trees will hold the hillside in place, preventing landslides during the next rainy season or earthquake. When the canopy is established, it will weaken menacing hurricanes. By decreasing the devastation of natural disasters, Haiti can focus on addressing their other needs like public health, water, education, sanitation, infrastructure, recycling, and more. With a cleaner healthier Haiti, a sustainable tourism industry can develop, strengthening the economy by creating a service based economy, stepping away from centuries of exploiting Haiti’s resources. If Haiti’s economy stabilizes, Haiti can become a major player in providing foreign aid to other countries. So, if you give a town a toilet, you can save the world.
