DELHI: The Indian Railways is in a need to buy 3,350 truckloads of cow dung at Rs 42 crore in 2018 to “recharge” – add bacteria to activate degradation – leaky, malfunctioning ‘bio-toilets’.
According to date shared by India’s national auditor to the Parliament, a total of 1,99,689 defects were found in 25,000 toilets that the Indian Railways had fitted on 44.8 percent of trains and hopes to expand to all trains by 2018
Bio-toilets are small-scale sewage-treatment systems beneath the toilet seat: Bacteria in a compost chamber digest human excreta, leaving behind water and methane.
The report says each of the bio-toilet requires 60 litres – or three large bucketfuls – of inoculum, a mix of cow dung and water.
This inoculum begins the process of breaking down 3,980 tons of human excreta that is released untreated by trains on rail tracks nationwide every day.
In an evaluation of 25,000 toilets for the period under review (2016-17), the CAG detected 199,689 defects and deficiencies.
