The system is intended as an alternative to the village latrines promoted by the World Bank and the UN for use in the developing world, which not only cause embarrassment and tend to create a nauseating environment, but also completely lose the fertility value of faeces and risk contaminating the ground water.
For instance, the bag (half full of faeces) is tied at the neck and sunk 10 cms below the surface; ten holes in the bag are made with a pointed stick; tree seedlings or seeds are planted and watered each week with waste water and urine (in the Eco Lavatory system, urine is collected separately, and waste water from washing and cooking is added, and the mixture is used to water crops); after two years, the sides of the bag are pierced to allow shallow tree roots to spread. Meanwhile, the bag has retained water around the roots, allowing maximum use of available water. Trees planted in bags are protected from salinity.
The Eco Lavatory 'could transform Third World prospects, reducing water pollution, fly borne disease and bilharzia, and enabling food and trees to be grown in infertile and arid regions. People would also have more energy to tend their fields, output from small family farms would be greatly increased, and people would no longer have to seek work in cities or large farms to earn money to buy food. The men could stay at home, increasing the available labour, giving further production gains.'
For those in the UK whose septic tank is leaking and causing pollution, 'it will be far cheaper to start using an Eco lavatory and thus to get free organic fertiliser.'
Stephens has had an Eco Lavatory (based on a converted Elsan) in his inside bathroom since 1984. 'There is no fly or smell problem in the bathroom or garden, and the garden is abundantly fertile with no artificial fertilisers, animal manure or pesticides. Good crops of tomatoes, cucumbers, etc have been eaten raw.'
Stephens is seeking L50,000 funding to set up an institute to promote pilot trials of the Eco Lavatory and other resource-saving ideas; and meanwhile he is trying to persuade aid volunteer bodies to get their volunteers to set up such systems in the developing world.
David Stephens, Tir Gaia Solar Village, Rhayader, Powys LD6 5AG (tel 0597 810 929).