COP18: Providing sanitation and agricultural resources to Haiti with compostable toilets

COP18: Providing sanitation and agricultural resources to Haiti with compostable toilets

COP18 (04/12/12) – Leah Page, Development Director at Sustainable Organic Integrated Livelihoods talks about her organisation’s project in Haiti which aims to bring ecological sanitation to the country.

She explains that by introducing composting toilets, they are tackling two problems, providing sanitation to communities and also transforming waste into resources which can be used for reforestation and agriculture projects.

She explains how nearly half of Haitians have no access to a toilet, and where access is available the waste often runs straight into waterways as there are no waste treatment facilities.

She talks about the vulnerability of Haiti to climate change and uses the example of Sandy, which just passed the country by and yet was able to wipe out whole neighbourhoods. She says more infrastructure and reforestation projects are needed to decrease the country’s vulnerability.