Teaching ecological sanitation in a school environment in Zimbabwe

This paper reports on a pilot study being carried out at the Chisungu Primary School, Harare, Zimbabwe, where children are taught the basics of ecological sanitation and hygiene in class and then taught how to build a range of low cost toilets. These include toilets made from bricks. The range includes simple toilets like the Arborloo (tree toilet), and also various types of VIP (Ventilated improved pit toilet). The children themselves do the construction work. In addition the children are taught the value of applying urine to food crops like green vegetables and maize in experiments undertaken in the school garden. The project is an attempt to provide a very practical and hands on approach to teaching low cost sanitation, recycling and hygiene in an environment which has enormous potential for replication. The school, with its dedicated teaching staff and an enthusiastic younger generation is perhaps one of the most ideal learning centres and dissemination points for low cost sanitation that exist.