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Toilets that save Lives and Fight Climate Change
The NGO SOIL is implementing a revolutionary sanitation system in Haiti
Energetic Design
Shared Spaces
21/12/18
More than 75% of the population in Haiti does not have access to a proper toilet. This has devastating effects both on people’s health and on the environment. The consequences in terms of health include water contamination from the pathogens in human waste. Every day, 10 children under the age of five die from diseases related to this lack of hygiene – a very high number for a country with only 9 million inhabitants.
With the goal of remedying this situation, SOIL is implementing a system of ecological toilets, called EkoLakay, in the densest urban settlements. At the moment, the system has already been installed in 1,100 homes, which means that 6,500 people have access to a proper toilet. Moreover, the waste that is collected is transformed into fertilizer for Haitian farmers, which helps add nutrients to the depleted soil, increasing the country’s agricultural productivity and fighting climate change. Finally, the EkoLakay system has created jobs for people in these disadvantaged communities. The initiative has been recognized with a 2018 Momentum for Change award from the United Nations.
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