In September Yanapuma will begin work on a project to construct ecological dry toilets for the 250 children and staff of the Abraham Calazacon school in Bua. This work is being made possible with the support of the Portland, Oregon branch of Engineers Without Borders, and Thinking Beyond Borders, who will be sending 16 students to work on the project during September and October.

The idea is to construct a block of 6 toilets that will separate out the urine for use as a liquid fertilizer for fruiting trees that we will plant around the edges of the sports field. We will be taking advantage of a difference in levels between the school and the playing fields to construct the toilet block so that the chambers are up to 3.5 meters deep. This will give us sufficient volume to be able to store the dried material for about a year, which will significantly reduce the danger of pathogens being able to survive. Actually, the biggest problem will be dealing with the large quantities of urine - up to 250 liters or more per day is what we are planning for.

As with our previous ecological toilet project there will be a substantial educational component and we will put as much time as is necessary into educating the children how to use and maintain them and about the environmental advantages of the system.

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