Conclusion of the WECF partnership project “Sustainable development for All”
Inauguration of an ecological toilet for the town hall in Garla Mare, Romania.
27.11.2006 |Margriet Samwel
Inauguration of the public dry urine diverting toilets for the town hall in Garla Mare
On 28 October the toilets were inaugurated in presence of local, regional and national Romanian authorities, local partner and WECF. Local Television attended the event and offered the possibility to report the goals, topics and achievements of the project.
Garla mare is a village with 3,500 inhabitants in the south west of Romania. There is no central water supply, sewage system, nor gasification. The project „Sustainable Development for All“ was carried out by WECF in cooperation with the NGO of Garla Mare GeoSan, local authorities, and partly with the local NGO FVC.
The main goal was to continue with promoting and implementing the approach of ecological sanitation in rural areas. Dry urine diverting toilet facility and urinals with access to visitors, were constructed by local builders in the yard of the town hall.
The facility replaced the pit latrines and will serve as an example on how to improve sanitary conditions without access to central water and sewage system and how to protect groundwater against de infiltration of human urine and faeces.
A member of the ministerial administration Bucharest, several representants of the agricultural administration of the County Mehedinti, and some regional authorities attended the inauguration. For all of them it was a visit of the first dry urine diverting toilet. Most of them liked the toilets and the new approach of managing human excrement’s.
The local television filmed the event and interviewed authorities and the project coordinator Margriet Samwel of WECF.
Construction of a dry urine diverting toilet for a family in Garla Mare
During the one-year project several activities and two studies were carried out:
- Construction of public toilets
- Construction of dry urine diverting (u.d.) toilets for households
- Training of villagers on how to construct dry u.d. toilets for households
- Training of villagers on how to fabricate dry u.d. seat riser, making use of a mould and cement
- Nitrate tests of the public wells and pesticide tests of the source Sipot
- Study on the possibilities of the development of tourism in the region of Garla Mare, in cooperation with master students of the Dutch university of Wageningen and local partners
- Study on strategies of an affordable solid waste management in the village Garla Mare, in cooperation with the Dutch Open University and local partners
- Start of solid waste management: collecting plastic waste. The first big reservoir for plastic waste is placed in the back yard of the town hall. A second will be placed in the centre of the village. School children started with separation and collection of solid waste in their school.
- Involvement of citizens: public meeting on solid waste management, on water quality
- Many individual discussion with families on dry urine diverting toilets
- Raising awareness: information materials for adults and children were developed
Thanks to the local project leader Claudia Tulei, many activities were carried out and made possible by her insistent motivation and power to fulfil the proposed project activities
Separation of solid waste: paper waste is collected by children in Garla Mare
First container for the collection of plastic waste
More information:
Sustainable Development for All
Solid waste report for Garla Mare
Ecotourism in Garla Mare
Ecologicla sanitation, from pit latrien to ecological toilets
