Where is Worm-Based Sanitation being used?
We estimate that over 210,000 people living in 9 countries are currently using worm-based sanitation solutions installed by IWBSA contributors, including vermifilter toilets, faecal sludge treatment plants, and sewage treatment plants. Other organisations have carried out further installations, and the number of people using worm-based sanitation may actually be over 227,000. This equates to approximately 57 tonnes of waste being treated and safely taken out of the environment each day, by worm-based sanitation.
Vermifilter toilets have been installed in a range of settings including humanitarian camps, rural and peri-rural communities, and urban communities. They have also been adapted to suit different uses, such as household or communal use, and different environments such as areas that are at risk of flooding or have poor soil for infiltration. On a larger scale, composting worms in faecal sludge treatment plants and sewage treatment plants are being used to treat waste from other systems, such as pit latrines, preventing it from being dumped in the environment.
Worm-based sanitation solutions have been installed by IWBSA contributors in Bangladesh, Ethiopia, India, Liberia, Malawi, Myanmar, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, and Uganda.
A newly completed vermifilter toilet in India.
USER Experience
Data collation and further research is required to fully assess the user experience of worm-based sanitation. However a project recently completed in Myanmar (Oxfam) found that 99% of households opted to continue using communal vermifilter toilets following the trial period and that satisfaction was linked to the lack of smell and flies, compared to the original latrines. The project also found that the communal vermifilter toilets cost 47% less than traditional pit latrines over a five-year period, as a result of a 34% reduction in construction costs, and a 90% decrease in maintenance costs.