Taking Tiger Worm Toilets to scale: opportunities and challenges

Abstract

Tiger Worm Toilets (TWTs) are a relatively recent innovation in sanitation technology, with the potential to offer affordable and safely managed on-site sanitation for underserved communities in line with Sustainable Development Goal 6. This article, authored by members of the International Worm-Based Sanitation Association (IWBSA), presents the state-of-the-art in TWT construction and operation based on frontier global experiences to-date, stemming from both knowledge from literature and the practical knowledge imparted by the authors, who were involved in the birth of this technology and are still active in the research and deployment of it today. The focus of this paper is on the implementation of TWTs to solve sanitation challenges in least-developed and lower-middle income countries specifically. The design of TWTs can be adapted to a wide range of environmental conditions including high water tables and rocky ground conditions, and in both rural and urban contexts. The challenge for TWTs therefore lies primarily in creating opportunities for scaling the uptake of this promising technology. Our article discusses the key barriers to this, identified to be broadly categorised as user preference, capacity and capability building, and governmental support–and proposes how to overcome these.

Deworming and micronutrient status by community open defecation prevalence: An observational study using nationally representative data from India, 2016–2018

“…This suggests that the public health system should consider sequencing deworming interventions, with focused targeting in communities that have already achieved minimum thresholds of OD of at least 30% and sequencing sanitation interventions in high OD communities before deworming days, ensuring high coverage for both. Interventions to reduce OD, and keep it low, might include community-led triggering and retriggering events and social marketing to support local latrine manufacture and construction [69], and maintenance efforts to extend the lives of the pits-and therefore latrine use-such as the construction of double-pits where space permits, subsidies for pit emptying and vermifiltration [70]. Participation in deworming and therefore coverage of targeted populations is influenced by several factors such as gender, socioeconomic status, population density, school attendance, local religious and cultural beliefs, awareness of helminth infections, and trust in public health campaigns [71,72].…”