Sanitation for the Urban Poor - Peru

Sanitation for the Urban Poor is bringing reliable, safe, and sustainable sanitation to low-income urban households that do not have a toilet.

Fast facts:

This activity has directly impacted over 2,500 people;
Over 300 tonnes of human waste have been safely removed from people's homes.

The problem

In Lima, the second driest capital of the world, there are more than two million people who do not have access to proper sanitation and to the sewage system due to water scarcity and lack of public investment. Families living in these areas use pit latrines in their homes. When human waste accumulates, their homes and communities convert into infectious areas. The consequences are mortal diseases, bad odors, nuisance from insects (flies and cockroaches) and rats. The pit latrines contaminate the groundwater and harm the foundation of the houses.

The solution

This activity is delivering hygienic in-home sanitation by combining a portable dry toilet, a weekly pick-up system and high quality customer care. For a small monthly fee they improve and ease the daily lives of their customers and create a cleaner, healthier environment for homes and communities. By installing affordable dry toilets users can put wherever they want in their home. It separates urine from human waste. The waste falls into a separate container and the client pours a handful of sawdust over it, to dehydrate the human waste eliminating bad smell, insects (flies and cockroaches) and diseases. For USD 13 per month the activity comes by and collects the waste every week.

Helping the planet

Collected waste is recycled into high quality compost that is used to enrich soil.

Helping people

This activity offers a high quality pick up service. Every week customers can exchange their full bucket of human waste for a fresh biodegradable bag and sawdust at the collection truck. This activity collects information and feedback from them about the service and product. They also solve problems they might have which allows them to maintain a personal customer relationship and to provide a high quality service.