Only 26% of rural toilets use twin-leach pits, finds survey

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Only 26% of rural toilets use twin-leach pits, finds survey-Waste disposal from other toilets could turn into health and environmental nightmare

Over the last year, a government advertisement featuring film actors has been preaching the benefits of the “do gadde” or twin-pit latrines, which would create valuable farm manure from human excreta.
“Shauchalaya ka ashirvadis the tagline used in the advertisement produced by the Centre’s flagship sanitation scheme Swachh Bharat Abhiyan.
This month, with the scheme claiming to be on the verge of completing toilet construction for all rural households, a government-commissioned survey shows that just over a quarter of rural toilets use this twin-pit system.

From waste to manure

Under the twin-pit system, two pits are dug with honeycombed walls and earthen floors which allow liquid to percolate into the surrounding soil.
When one pit is filled and closed off, waste flow is transferred to the second pit, allowing waste in the first pit to be converted into manure after a year or two.
The analysis of raw data from the National Annual Rural Sanitation Survey 2018-19, shows that just 26.6% of rural households use the recommended twin-pit system to dispose of excreta from their toilets.
Septic tanks are the most popular option, with 28% of toilets connected to a septic tank with a soak pit and 6% to a tank without a soak pit.
Others use a single leach pit (18%) or a closed pit (11%).
Open pits, open drains or nallahs, or simply discarding waste directly into a nearby pond or waterbody are the other options, while a few toilets are connected to a closed drain leading to a sewer system.
The twin pit has been promoted by the Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation and the World Health Organisation as an in-situ sanitation system, which claims to bypass thorny issues as owners will be dealing with manure, not excreta.
Uttar Pradesh, which tops the list with 64% of toilets with twin pits, had made the technology mandatory for anyone who wanted to avail the government’s Rs.12,000 subsidy to build toilets.
Jharkhand, which is second on the list, with almost 58% of its toilets connected to twin pits, was declared open defecation free (ODF) only late last year.