How do you use a toilet without water?

ZumaPoop is an awesome project to provide dignified and playful ecological restrooms for kids in Moctezuma, an informal community in the suburbs of Oaxaca, Mexico that lacks water and sanitation infrastructure, and to teach these kids how to use these sustainable facilities.

ZumaPoop is composed of 2 parts:
1) The construction of beautiful waterless compost-toilets and hand-washing units.
2) A fun educational program about sustainable hygiene tailored for children.

This project was conceived by myself and La Casita, a local, women-led, civil organization that provides free daycare to children from low/no income families in Moctezuma. La Casita will host and maintain the sanitary facilities and has already started the educational program, its been a lot of fun! The children activities include games and songs that teach about hygiene, importance of water, use and maintenance of compost-toilets and composting practices in general.

Compost-toilets require no water and all the waste is composted through a natural, proven process based on WASH (Water And Sanitation for Health) principles. It is safe, clean and odor-free. The fertilizer is then distributed to the local community or used in La Casita’s organic farm. Hand-washing units use harvested rainwater collected from the roof.

In February of 2017, we will build the children-centric restrooms in a sustainable way by using local construction techniques like rammed earth walls and locally produced materials including roof tiles, wall tiles and reclaimed wood. These are also the cheapest materials locally available!

An awesome idea isn’t created alone. Parents, educators, and of course, the children themselves have been involved in ZumaPoop from the beginning. The restrooms will be built by community volunteers together with skilled construction masters. Once completed, anyone in this waterless region can proudly build and use his or her own sustainable restroom!