Tulane MCHLT staff were happy to recently receive the following news from Tulane MCHLT Scholar alumnus (MPH ’13) and Humanure Power co-founder Anoop Jain, who has been working in Bihar, India to end outdoor defecation:
I am absolutely thrilled to announce that Humanure Power opened its pilot community sanitation facility on July 10! After 4 years of dreaming, we celebrated the opening of our facility with our entire staff and hundreds of people from the local community we are working with. We had 258 users on our very first day! This is incredibly exciting, and is a great number to work up from. In the coming weeks, we will analyze our usage data to track which groups in the community need more outreach to encourage use. Our goal is to capture this data effectively to demonstrate impact, so that we can work closely with local government agencies to replicate our model throughout Bihar.
I’d also like to mention one key change to the HP model. We are no longer focusing on using the energy we produce from our facilities to power batteries/portable lights. Instead, we are going to use that energy to power a water filtration system. We conducted water quality tests a few months ago. The results were extremely discouraging and highlighted an immediate need for a clean water intervention. It makes sense for us to implement a solution that is needed by the community, thus the change in our model. I’d like to point out that the energy side of our program has always been flexible. Our primary concern is improving access to toilets. We are willing to use the energy we produce to serve the community in whatever way it needs. We will sell filtered water for $0.01 per liter, half of what other vendors in the area are selling it for. This money will go directly to paying our cleaning staff and for general toilet maintenance.
Having witnessed the work and passion Anoop has put into realizing his dream, it is exciting to learn that the facility is not only open, but has been so directly shaped by the needs of the community. Access to toilets not only safeguards human dignity and sanitation, it also helps protects the safety and education of girls.
