By Walter Wilson Nana
Some health personnel in Buea were recently drilled on using modern technology to manage human waste.
Nelson Ekane, Researcher on Ecological Sanitation
At a one-day workshop on Ecological Sanitation Concepts that took place
at the Southwest Regional Delegation of Public Health, a researcher
from Stockholm Environment Institute, Sweden, Nelson Ekane Bellewang,
explained that ecological sanitation is one of the methods used in the
management of human waste in a way that the dependency on natural
resources is minimised.
He said, "Ecological sanitation involves the separation from source of human faeces, urine and collection into separate compartments."Going by the researcher, the idea of ecological sanitation is closing a loop on water and nutrient cycles.
"In areas where we have shortage of water, where people can't afford to have enough water to cook, drink and flush their toilets, then the drive for ecological sanitation forcefully comes in. In areas of high water table where we have contamination of ground water, like the Muea neighbourhood of Buea, Kumba, and other places where people depend on well water, there is a lot of contamination from pit latrines.
With the Dry-Toilets or Ecological Sanitation, one will minimise some of the health hazards," he said.Though ecological sanitation may be new to Cameroonians, Ekane said it has been operational in China, South Africa, Uganda and Mexico.
"People are practising it in Cameroon in another way, without knowing,
whereby they defecate in farms, people pee behind their houses at the
bases of plants, which plants do very well. What we are doing now is
introducing the scientific methods," he said.
Rose Mbuagbaw, Sanitary Technician, advised continuous education to be
carried out across the nation for a better understanding of the
processes involved in ecological sanitation.
Ernest Yinou of the Southwest Regional Delegation of Public Health said, "The management of waste from the human body is not always the best in our communities. Hence, it is also a source of health problems. Therefore, the existence of ecological sanitation is just timely. It is cheaper and easy to manage. They never get full and the waste can be recycled for agricultural concerns."
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