The first step in improving health and increasing effective food production is eliminating intestinal parasites through sanitation and waste treatment. Properly handled, wastes can be converted to energy, compost, clean nutrients and even food. The enthusiasm, participation and training of the village people are vital to the success of the integrated system. Villagers must be shown how they can improve their own sanitation, health, nutrition and village ecology, and the means to generate income from the compost, biogas fuel, fish and algae. The system is flexible enough to accommodate various cultural traditions.
Latrines eliminate the source of intestinal parasites.
Where houses are spread out over a wide area, family latrines can produce compost to improve soil fertility. In a village center or market, central latrines can provide continuous wastes to a biogas digester. Animal manure and plant waste are added to the digester which ferments the waste and breaks it down into gas, liquids and solids. The liquid effluent is sterilized in a series of solar heated pipes and becomes a safe mineral nutrient source for the spirulina pond. Sludge is removed from the digester and composted before spreading on soils.