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Fiji Dawasamu Hub Achievement Report May 2015 Objective: WASH

Composting Toilets for Dawasamu Secondary School

GVIs Community Project teamed up with Global Perspectives students from Stellys School in Canada construct two new composting toilets to for Dawasamu Secondary School (DSS). The flush toilets at DSS require constant costly maintenance and ongoing plumbing and wa-ter source issues make them unpleasant and often unusable for the students. A frequent lack of toilet paper means students often resort to using pages from their notebooks which in turn blocks up the fragile plumbing system. When water pressure runs low in the dry sea-son, the problem is exacerbated and children face the unacceptable prospect of going to school without adequate sanitation facilities. The two new composting toilets eliminate all of these issues in an environmentally friendly and sustainable way. They are also cost-effective and more pleasant for the students and staff to use. The generous donation from the Stelly School Group allowed GVI to start work on the pro-ject. Students from Stelly School and GVI worked hard to lay the foundations of the struc-tures before the Expedition team came in to finish the job. Both buildings have two toilets inside. Only one is used and once that is full (approx. 6 months) it is sealed and begins the composting process and the second toilet is then used. In order for the compositing process to take place the staff and students must know how to correctly use them.

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GVI volunteers at Dawasamu Secondary School have planned and delivered les-sons on how to use the toilets and the benefits of compositing toilets over the flush toilets. For many years before local communities had access to flush toilets, pit toilets were the norm. These were unsanitary, odorous and bad for the en-vironment and for many people in Fiji, flush toilets are seen as the solution to sanitation issues. Therefore GVI had to educate both students and teachers on the benefits of composting toilets to negate any negative impressions that construe composting toilets as less de-sirable alternatives to flush systems.

GVI volunteers worked with students to identify the benefits of composting toilets and then provided training on how to use the toilets and ways to ensure proper upkeep. The volun-teers combined activities such as poster making, quizzes and tours of the facilities to fully engage with the students ensuring that all students understood all sides of the concepts and methods involved with this new sanitation system.

Now that the construction and awareness lessons are complete, both students and teachers can start using an alternative sanitation system that is both environmentally friendly and sanitary. GVI Fiji

Posters made by students on composting benefits

For more information on GVI projects in Fij i please visit

www.gvi.co.uk

To make a donation to our pro-jects in Fij i please visit

www.gvi.org for more details