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http://www.bbc.com/news/business-41680867
Can poo power solve India's toilet problem?
By Aamir Rafiq Peerzeda Bihar, India
One social enterprise in one of India's poorest areas is taking on the challenge of building public toilets.
It is using the waste from the toilets to help pay for their upkeep.
More than half a billion people in rural India do not use toilets.
It's a situation which leads to a host of health and social problems, including children not going to school and women being assaulted or fearing assault when they go to secluded areas to relieve themselves.
Alongside official efforts social entrepreneurs, like the team behind Shri or Sanitation and Health Rights in India, are coming up with some inventive proposals.
Upkeep payments
When Prabin Kumar, one of the founders of Shri, was at school he would often be late because he had to walk more than a kilometre to get to the river to defecate.
Today he's one of three social entrepreneurs building toilets in Bihar state in north east India that communities can use for free.
Many of the state-run toilets have encountered problems when it comes to clearing the waste and paying for maintenance and upkeep.
Instead of clearing the waste, Shri toilets channel it into a biodigester.
The biodigester then provides electricity which powers a pump for ground water.
This is put through a filtration process at the facility and the filtered water is then bottled and sold for half a rupee (£0.01) a litre. The money from the water pays for the maintenance and upkeep of the toilets.
Shri currently sells 3,000 litres of filtered water a day.
Can poo power solve India's toilet problem?
By Aamir Rafiq Peerzeda Bihar, India
- 14 November 2017
One social enterprise in one of India's poorest areas is taking on the challenge of building public toilets.
It is using the waste from the toilets to help pay for their upkeep.
More than half a billion people in rural India do not use toilets.
It's a situation which leads to a host of health and social problems, including children not going to school and women being assaulted or fearing assault when they go to secluded areas to relieve themselves.
Alongside official efforts social entrepreneurs, like the team behind Shri or Sanitation and Health Rights in India, are coming up with some inventive proposals.
Upkeep payments
When Prabin Kumar, one of the founders of Shri, was at school he would often be late because he had to walk more than a kilometre to get to the river to defecate.
Today he's one of three social entrepreneurs building toilets in Bihar state in north east India that communities can use for free.
Many of the state-run toilets have encountered problems when it comes to clearing the waste and paying for maintenance and upkeep.
Instead of clearing the waste, Shri toilets channel it into a biodigester.
The biodigester then provides electricity which powers a pump for ground water.
This is put through a filtration process at the facility and the filtered water is then bottled and sold for half a rupee (£0.01) a litre. The money from the water pays for the maintenance and upkeep of the toilets.
Shri currently sells 3,000 litres of filtered water a day.
