Zim waste is noticed somehow!

A Francistown based toilet man is looking to do his business in Zimbabwe.Actually, John Hunter-Hardy is looking for someone else to do it for him, and believe it or not he is not looking to make a profit on the Gendarme self-flush units that are sold across the border.Hunter-Hardy says there is a massive need for water saving devices in the drought stricken areas around Bulawayo so he is trying to work out a licensing agreement with the Hlekweni training centre in Matabeleland so the Quaker run organisation can assemble the environmentally friendly toilets in their workshop and use the profits to help support the centre. “Hlekweni have good relations with NGOs and aid organisations such as Oxfam so I am hoping they will get some help starting up. The publicity and the contacts will be good for our company in the long run and the toilets will help ease the water problems for people in Zimbabwe.”The 500 litre Gendarme units suitable for use by a family of 10 cost P5000 in Botswana but Hlekweni Director Dave Jobson says the price will come down if they can be produced in Zimbabwe.“We’ve decided this is a good product that is good for the environment but right now it is beyond many people’s means to bring these things in from Botswana, especially when you throw in the duty charges and transportation costs.“If we can line up the materials we need on this side, John seems ready to bend over backwards to help us, so we’re hoping to start production in about a month.”Hunter-Hardy has been building and promoting his anaerobic digestion toilets for seven years and the police, the BDF, construction companies, prospecting camps, clinics and private homes have all used them with great success.According to the former site manager at the new technical college in Francistown, C&H Construction saved about P16,000 per month on their water bill when they installed industrial Gendarme units to cope with the sanitary needs of 800 workers.The toilets are particularly suitable for areas where there is no water or where the water table is very high since the main digestion tank is filled when the unit is installed and then no more water needs to be added during use. The waste that collects in pit latrines, on the other hand, commonly leeches down into the ground and eventually pollutes the groundwater.Since the units re-circulate water in the flush mechanism no fresh oxygen is added to the digestion tank so it works like a second tummy. That is the bacteria and enzymes that help digest food in the stomach continue to breakdown the waste matter in the tank until no harmful germs are left.The solid free liquid that eventually leaves the unit is rich in nitrogen and very suitable for use as a fertilizer.