According to fundraising platform Efforts for Good, Delhi lacks an ‘adequate number of public urinals and toilets’ and public urination is a problem in the city. Another challenge that the Indian city – with an estimated 29-million inhabitants – faces is plastic pollution.
Ashwani Aggarwal, a fine arts graduate from Delhi College of Arts and Commerce, has come up with a solution to help address both problems. He and a team of four others are building toilets through his non-profit organisation, BasicShit, which he established in 2014.
Aggarwal used about 9,000 plastic bottles (120kg of plastic) to create his first eco-friendly toilet. According to online publication Better India, ‘the best part is that there is no foul smell or the need to be cleaned with water’.
Each unit, known as PeePee, costs approximately Rs 12,000 (about R2,400) and can be installed in two hours.
‘I convert trash into urinals’ said Ashwani. ‘The toilets are two integrated urine carriages, each with a capacity of 200 litres. Each carriage collects 150 litres of urine per day on average. This is then later stabilised and purified with activated carbon to remove toxins from the urine.’
This purification process prevents the urine from contaminating the groundwater and depending on usage, the filters only need to be changed every six months.
Ashwani Aggarwal has authored several research papers and case studies on how public urination affects public health in urban areas.
Till now Ashwani tried and tested multiple urinal designs across the country out of which 30 – 40 units work. He spent his own money on research and development and also he received a grant from Asian Development Bank.
The BasicShit team identified almost 30 walls in Delhi where over 500 people were urinating each day. The team got permission to place PeePee units at 20 walls and there are another 30 units installed across India.
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