Bureaucrat Leads by Example, Cleans Toilet Pit in Warangal Village

Setting an unprecedented example, the Central Drinking Water Supply and Swachh Bharat Mission secretary Parameswaran Iyer, who was on a visit to a Warangal village to promote and observe the twin pit composting toilets as a low-cost sanitation solution, himself entered a pit and took out the manure from it – hitting hard the stigma associated with the work, and spreading a welcome message towards hygiene.

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“It’s perfectly safe and clean to empty a twin-pit toilet. We needed to demonstrate how twin pit toilet is one of the best suitable low-cost technologies in rural areas. Second, there is a stigma attached to emptying these pits after closing them for six months or a year. Once you close one pit for months, the excreta gets converted into clean compost,” he said, according to The Times of India.

Parameswaran was accompanied by a team of  over a dozen top bureaucrats from 23 states, along with some officials from UNICEF. They visited every house in the village to understand and observe the working of the technology that successfully converts night soil into rich manure.

Describing the technology as a “revolutionary concept” that can be extremely useful in villages that lack adequate drainage systems, Parameswaran commended the villagers in Gangadevipally for setting an example.

“Only one pit is used at a time. When one is full, its drop hole is closed and the second one is used. After six months to one year, the waste stored in the first pit can be removed safely and used as soil conditioner. The pit can be used again when the second pit is filled up. This cycle can be repeated,” he said, adding that the cover slabs of twin-pit toilets have two drop holes – one for each pit.

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Showing the retrieved manure to the villagers, he informed them that it was rich in nitrogen, potassium and phosphorus and can be extremely useful in agricultural practices.

Parameswaran also put out a series of tweets in which he said, “Great to be emptying a toilet pit in Gangadevipally, Warangal @swachhbharat.”

“It’s perfectly safe and clean to empty a twin pit toilet. The @swachhbharat team joins Gangadevipally village today,” he said.

He also shared a photograph of the team holding coffee powder compost after emptying the toilet pits.

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