Perceptions and Attitudes Toward Eco-Toilet Systems in Rural Areas: A Case Study in the Philippines

Abstract

Death due to diseases from poor sanitation is a serious global issue and it has become one of the priorities of the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (i.e., SDG6). This SDG6 aims to provide adequate improved sanitation facilities to over 2.3 billion people around the world who have no or limited access to sanitation, wherein more than two-thirds of these un-served people live in rural areas. One of the strategies for addressing this global issue is through emerging sustainable sanitation technologies such as the Eco-Toilet System (ETS), which uses small amounts of water or is even waterless and recovers nutrients from human waste thereby promoting water-energy conservation, improved sanitation and supplement nutrients essential to plant growth. Social acceptance, however, remains a key barrier in deploying the ETS. A social perception study on the use of the ETS was conducted in a rural community in Mulanay, Philippines. The researchers analyzed the proposed combined technology acceptance model and theory of planned behavior (C-TAM-TPB) using multiple linear regression and the Mann-Whitney U-test to evaluate the perceptions and attitudes of a rural community towards the use of the ETS. The results showed that more than 50% of the respondents are aware of the nutrient value of human excreta and believe that it is usable as fertilizer; however, less than 25% prefer to utilize it for food production. Results also indicate that the behavior of the users is driven by their attitude (β = 0.420, p-value < 0.010). Moreover, the Mann-Whitney U-test results revealed that people who are knowledgeable of the nutrient value of human excreta and are willing to collect them have more positive attitude towards the ETS.

A Perception Study of an Integrated Water System Project in a Water Scarce Community in the Philippines

“…Consequently, users might have negative perceptions of ease of use, which could negatively affect their perceptions of the technology's usefulness and their attitude towards the technology, thereby affecting their behavioral intention for usage. Such findings are supported by various studies [18,19,38].…”

“…The results also demonstrated that the perceived usefulness of ETS can also be enhanced by improving the ease of use of environmental technology, as well as by creating demand for sanitation in the pilot community. By comparing the results, the outcomes generated by the PLS-SEM model in this study and the multiple linear regression in the previous study [19] were similar. Therefore, this study confirmed that PLS-SEM could be an alternative approach for predicting behavioral intention in C-TAM-TPB models.…”

“…Hence, both community groups strongly agree that water should be conserved. The results of the previous study support this information [19]. Findings show that the Mulanay community is seeking green technology that can provide opportunities to save water, e.g., eco-toilet system.…”

“…The research framework, variables, and hypotheses adopted in this study were based on previous research [19] that focused on ETS only. These elements are presented in Figure 3 and Table 2.…”

“…The demographic profile of the valid respondents is presented in the previous study [19]. However, only 27 returned questionnaires from the university community were incomplete and were taken out from the data analysis.…”