Mobile Dry Diversion Toilet
Back to Projects list- Location
- Lagos, Nigeria
- Year
- 2022
- Client
- Two families in Ifelodun (Lagos) – Field trials October 2019 to March 2021, Four families in Ifelodun (Lagos); one family in Abete-Ijora (Lagos); four families in Oworonshoki (Lagos) – field trials March 2022 to August 2022, Three families in Abete-Ijora (Lagos); two families in Orile (Lagos); two families in Sari Iganmu (Lagos), and one familiy and one elementary school in Amukoko – Field trials September 2022 to February 2023
- Team
- Fabienne Hoelzel, Yewande Morris, Olufemi Atibioke, Seun Gbogboade, Aro Ismaila
- Design and governance research, phase 1 and 2
- Stuttgart State Academy of Art and Design
- Project lead and project initiation, all phases
- Chair of Urban Design, Prof. Fabienne Hoelzel
- Industrial design research
- Chair of Industrial Design, Prof. Uwe Fischer, phase 1
- Industrial design, phase 2 and 3
- Office Uwe Fischer
- Funding of design research phase until July 2018, phase 1
- Baden Württemberg Ministery of Science, Research, and Arts
- Funding of design research phase until July 2018, phase 1
- Baden-Württemberg Ministry for Environment, Climate, and Energy
- Technical consultancy, phase 1
- Eawag-Sandec/ Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich
- Academic partner, phase 2
- EiABC Addis Abeba, Ethiopia
- Community evaluation of test mock-up, phase 2 and 3
- Ajeromi-Ifelodun community, Lagos
- Community evaluation of test mock-up, phase 2
- Aware Community, Addis Abeba
- Funding of the Lagos Workshop, August 2018, phase 2
- Heinrich Böll Stiftung Nigeria
- Academic partner, phase 2
- Covenant University, Ogun state, Nigeria
- Funding of prototype construction for the field tests, phase 3
- Consulate-General of the Federal Republic of Germany in Nigeria
- Organization of crowdfunding, phase 3
- I care for you
- Industrial prototyping and production of optimized toilet interface
- Illig Maschinenbau, Heilbronn, Germany
- Funding of industrial prototyping and optimized toilet interface, and implementation of 20 improved MDDTs, phase 4
- Private Swiss Foundation
The Mobile Dry Diversion Toilet is a composting toilet and targets families in low-income areas without sanitation at the household level. As an urban research project and an industrial design research project, it has been developed with a series of partners in research and in development as well as from practice since 2017.
The highly participatory project development in 2018, during which the design, aesthetics, construction, and material as well as governance, operation, and maintenance were discussed with selected and interested residents of two communities in Lagos (Nigeria) and Addis Abeba (Ethiopia), two non-functional, locally produced test mock-ups were built. In 2019, after another research and development phase, two amended and fully functional prototypes were built in Lagos. The monitored 6-month field trial with two families in Ifelodun, Lagos, have started in September 2019. The evaluation of the results of the trial period will help us to further improve the design and the waste disposal process. The goal is to produce in 2020 a small series at the selling price of 200 US$ or less.
The first phase (2017-2018) was funded by the Stuttgart State Academy of Art and Design, the Baden Württemberg Ministry of Science, Research, and Art, and the Baden-Württemberg Ministry for Environment, Climate, and Energy. The second phase (2018) was funded by the Stuttgart State Academy of Art and Design (workshop in Addis Abeba) and the Heinrich-Böll Stiftung Nigeria (workhop in Lagos). The third phase (2018-2019) was made possible by private donations via the Swiss crowdfunding platform "I care for you" (further design development and research in Lagos) and by the Consulate-General of the Federal Republic of Germany in Lagos (construction and implementation of two locally produces and fully functional prototypes for the 6-month field trials).
The current ongoing fourth phase has been slowed down by the Covid-19 pandemic. Substantially supported by a Swiss private foundation and in close collaboration with industry partner Illig Maschinenbau an optimized toilet seat is currently being developed. The result is expected in the third quarter of 2021, whereas the second and third field trials in Lagos (Nigeria) started in February 2022 and in August 2022, respectively.