Turning Urine Into Gold By Lewis Mwanangombe

LUSAKA, Dec 26 (IPS) – When he ordered his colleagues at the Water and Sanitation Association of Zambia to save all their urine in a plastic bottle in the office toilet, they thought he was mad. But German sanitation specialist Christopher Kellner wanted to demonstrate why he calls urine “liquid gold”.

“(Urine) contains the three most important plant nutrients which farmers buy as artificial fertiliser. These are nitrogen, phosphorus) and potassium – but it also contains all eight micronutrients plants need for growth,” Kellner explains. 

URUGUAY:  ‘Dry Toilets’ Provide Ecological Solution in Slums By Inés Acosta

BARROS BLANCOS, Uruguay, Dec 28 (IPS) – Marisabel’s modest home had no plumbing, like the rest of the dwellings in this poor suburb on the outskirts of Montevideo, the capital of this small South American country.

But thanks to an innovative community project, her family now has a shower and what is known as a dry toilet, which operate using alternative, non-polluting ecological systems – a far cry from the buckets that the family used to use, which were simply emptied into a nearby unlined pit.