Esther Munyiva, a landlady in Nairobi’s Mukuru Kwa Reuben informal settlement, installed her first Fresh Life toilet in 2012. Munviya is one of millions of Africans benefiting from a quiet revolution in approaches to sanitation. Disruptors at universities, non-profits and companies across the continent are increasingly rethinking every aspect of the toilet value chain. In Ghana, South Africa, Kenya, Zambia and Uganda, simple but elegant alternatives are helping fight disease and environmental degradation while also saving water — and extracting monetary value from bodily waste. The waste collected by Fresh Life toilets is turned into fertilizers and animal feed by the company which services them. That’s what Safi Sana is doing in Accra, Ghana, where its factory turns 25 tons of fecal sludge (and 15 tons of organic waste) into both electricity and organic fertilizer every day. Meanwhile, Dyllan Randall of the University of Cape Town is plotting how to earn profits from bricks and fertilizers he’s building out of urine that he gets from waterless urinals.
SOURCE: OZY
More Stories
At the Coalface of the Green Revolution, but Earning Crumbs
Harris Stresses that U.S. Interests in African Nations Extends beyond Competing with China
Lesotho’s Lawmakers Debated a Motion to Claim Huge Swathes of Territory from South Africa
New HRW Head Weighs in on the UK’s Plan to Deport Asylum Seekers to Kigali
South Africans Spent at least 9.5 Hours a Day Online in 2022
Togo Could Move the Needle on Tropical Diseases
Making It Easier for Everyday Africans to Take Advantage of Previously Restricted Asset Classes
Pirates Disrupt the Gulf of Guinea’s Usually Peaceful Waters
Chad’s Parliament has Approved a Bill to Nationalise Oil Assets
Unilever Nigeria Announces Exit of Home Care and Skin Cleansing Markets by End of the Year
Joshua Baraka is Ugandan Music’s Next Big Thing
Design for Human Rights