Sulabh in Kabul

Sulabh in Kabul

Civil Society/April 2008

Mohammad Younus sells cigarettes from a tray one of the busiest roads of Kabul city in the Deh Afghanan area. With a big market and many government offices, it is a good place to do business and Younus who came from Kandahar to Kabul three years ago to earn a living manages to make ends meet.
But Younus is a street salesman and does not have access to toilets in offices, shops or hotels. For the past few months he has been regularly using the new Sulabh toilet, one among five constructed by Sulabh International in the capital city with Rs 3 crore in aid from the Indian government.
Located in five of the most congested areas of the city, the Sulabh toilets are an important contribution to the reconstruction of sanitation facilities in this city. As the capital, Kabul became a much sought after prize – facing daily bombardments and attacks which reduced the city’s infrastructure to rubble during the successive waves of war.
Houses were destroyed or damaged, pipes broken and water sources contaminated. Yet the population pressure on the city has grown throughout this time. Internally displaced people migrated to Kabul in search of livelihoods during the years of conflict and the departure of the Taliban has meant the return of millions of refugees to Afghanistan.
A city with a population of under half a million before the war has had to absorb more than 4-5 million people even though its service delivery system was completely shattered.

While most cities in the developing world have areas with open sewers, in Kabul, the sewage flows down the street even in middle class and upper class neighbourhoods. Combined with the lack of paving and streets which are little more than potholed mud tracks, the mess of sewage and mud can turn entire roads into dank contaminated cesspools.
Laying sewer lines is a major challenge. Not only is it economically expensive, but a city wide sewerage system would require an overview that can determine land usage, something that needs delicate planning and enormous time.
In the International Year of Sanitation, the technology used by Sulabh seems especially relevant to rebuilding sanitation and restoring hygienic living conditions in Afghanistan. Dr Bindeshwar Pathak, Founder of the Sulabh Sanitation and Social Reform Movement, who was in Kabul last year for the inauguration of the completed project, says the technology is extremely well suited to Afghanistan. While the pit toilet for individual households is extremely cheap to build ($10-$500) and its contents can be turned into bio fertiliser, explains Dr Pathak, the biogas digester for use in public spaces has an added value in Afghanistan. With scant sources of electricity, even Kabul city remains bereft of power for large stretches of time. The biogas produced in Sulabh’s public toilets in Kabul helps power the lamps and heat water.

The hot water and lighting as well as the cooking fuel provided by the biogas plant in the Deh Afghanan toilet are a mater of pride for municipality employee Zainullah, the caretaker of the complex. “In winter we had about 700-800 men using the toilets and in summer this number was around 1200” he says. Sima Gul who is in the area for shopping uses the toilet to freshen up and relax for a few minutes; something that Afghanistan’s social customs do not allow women to do in public spaces. Fewer women have been using the toilet because of the conservative social customs and this toilet gets about 25 women a day.

“We would like to have more such facilities in Kabul, says Engineer Muzafar Pamir, the head of Policy and coordination in the Kabul Municipality. The generation of bio gas, the lack of requirement of sewage pipes and sewage treatment plants make it an ideal solution for an overburdened city where Pamir and his colleagues struggle to restore basic services.
Kabul is not the only city impressed by the program. Senior Indian diplomat Sandeep Kumar, who as Minister in the Indian Embassy in Kabul is in charge of administering India’s aid program here, says the embassy has been inundated with similar requests. “Given the success of this project many of the municipalities have asked that this be replicated in other provinces” he says, adding that the matter is under consideration. Kumar says the project has been unique in several ways. “Firstly it is a breakthrough in eco-friendly sanitation technology both in terms of its contribution to the revival of the crippled sanitation sector as well as adapting efficiently to the harsh climatic conditions in Kabul.” Kumar also points out that it is one of the few projects that has become self sustaining generating revenues of up to 10,000 Afghani daily for the Kabul municipality which helps in the sustainable operations and maintenance of the project.

The technology has been an eye opened not just for the residents of Kabul but even for Sulabh International itself. The toilets survive one of Kabul’s harshest winters when temperatures plummeted below – 25 degrees. “We had experience of just up to 2-3 degrees (cold) and not that of -20 to -30” notes Dr Pathak with some satisfaction. For the plants in Kabul extra precautions were taken to insulate the plants from the outside temperature using thermocol and glass wool.
A few minor problems were reported by users. Bio gas generation was not sufficient in winter (users are also fewer then) to heat the water, leading to the closure of the bathing space. The balance between insulation of the toilet from the cold weather and sufficient ventilation to ensure it is odour free is also yet to be established and some of the water pipes were damaged by the extremities of climate. However that the toilet was able to stay open and function through severe winter is itself a major advance.
“The lesson that we have learnt is that these biogas digesters can work very well even in harsh winter conditions like in Kabul Afghanistan” says Dr Pathak adding “henceforth if we get an opportunity, we can put up biogas digesters in cold climates in India and other parts of the world.”