India, Kerala: girls’ school in Ernakulam first to get e-toilet

A government girls’ school in Ernakulam, Kerala, will soon be the first school in the country to get an electronic public toilet.

This is part of the suchi@school (Sustainable Comprehensive Hygiene Initiative) project, an initiative of local CPI (M) Member of Parliament comrade P. Rajeev. The project aims to ensure adequate sanitation facilities – toilets and urinals – in all government and government-aided schools in Ernakulam district.

A number of schools will be fitted with e-toilets, which have automatic doors and will self-clean after each use. Where water is scarce, recycling units using biomembrane reactors will be installed.

There are also plans for installing electronic sanitary napkin disposal systems.

Each system will cost around 125,000 Rupees (US$ 2,800) and the total estimated cost is 25 million Rupees (US$ 560,000). Local government will provide 10 million Rupees (US$ 225,000) while the rest of the funding will come from public sector undertakings like BPCL Kochi Refinery.

Primary schools are excluded from the e-toilet project, as closing the doors completely may create problems for young children.

Eram Scientific Solutions, a company based in Thiruvanthapuram, is supplying the e-toilets which will be installed by Keltron. Both companies will jointly take care of maintenance.

Delight e-toilet. Side advertising provides extra income.

The launch,  at the beginning of 2011, of India’s first e-toilet – Delight– drew widespread media attention. The original design came from MS Vinod and Abhilash of Dea Celera Electronic Devices. Later Eram Scientific Solutions entered a joint venture with Dea Celera to market Delight. In March 2011 Eram reported it had received orders for 10,000 units in India and the Middle East, and expected a turnover of 1 billion Rupees (US$ 22.4 million) by the end of 2011.

The Delight is a pay-per-use coin-operated public toilet, sold as a standalone unit or as a block of three toilets with a separate toilet for women, men and the disabled. Besides the self-cleaning and water-recycling function, the Delight incorporates a unique SMS feature, which sends phone alerts to the toilet administrator, after automatically checking on water and power availability, once in every 20 minutes.

For technical details see the brochures of the single unit and the Imperial toilet block and the promotional videos below.

Related web sites:

• P. Rajeev – suchi@school project
• IRC – WASH in Schools
• Dea Celera Electronic Devices
• Eram Scientific Solutions – Delight

Source: Anindita Sengupta, iconowatch, 26 Jun 2011 ; ExpressBuzz, 03 May 2011 ; M Sarita Varma, Financial Express, 20 Mar 2011