By Our Reporter
SHILLONG: After Chief Minister Dr Mukul Sangma, the eco-friendly bio-digester toilets mainly used by the army in high altitude regions of the Himalayas has caught the fascination of Community and Rural Development (C&RD) Minister Prestone Tynsong during his recent visit to Lakshadweep.
“We are planning to introduce Bio digester toilet technology as a pilot project initially in few selected villages. Depending on the success of the pilot projects, the government would take a call on introducing this new toilet technology in a big way,” Tynsong said here after his return from the Union Territory on Wednesday.
Tynsong said that the his department was currently working out the modalities to converge this new technology with the ongoing Total Sanitation Campaign (TSC).
According to Tynsong, the DRDO has customized the bio-digester to treat human waste for a family of 4-6 members for the coastal areas, Union Territories and different islands.
“Lakshadweep has created 12,000 bio-toilets for the entire island population,” he said.
With the introduction of the new technology, the villagers would no longer require to dug a big hole for the septic tank, he said adding that this technology is air tight.
When ask about its cost effectiveness, he said that each toilet would cost between Rs 35,000 to Rs 40,000.
“The life span of these bio-digester toilets is 35 years,” Tynsong added. Earlier, Chief Minister Dr Mukul Sangma had said that the technology is not just an alternative but provides a solution to sanitation problem.
The Chief Minister had also advised on the need to have an MoU signed between State Government, DRDO, Centre for Innovation in Public Systems (CIPS), Hyderabad along with FICCI as the implementing partner during the initial phase.
It may be mentioned that DRDO have come up with innovative technology for sanitation which can replace the convention septic tanks model of sanitation by innovative bio- digester tanks using anaerobic microorganisms which is superior but cheaper than the septic tank model.