page_title: Urine-diverting dry toilet
section_title: Health aspects
hierarchical_section_title: Urine-diverting dry toilet / Health aspects
caption_attribution_description: Composted faecal matter of UDDTs in Addis Ababa (Ethiopia).
context_page_description: A urine-diverting dry toilet is a type of dry toilet with urine diversion that can be used to provide safe, affordable sanitation in a variety of contexts worldwide. The separate collection of feces and urine without any flush water has many advantages, such as odor-free operation and pathogen reduction by drying. While dried feces and urine harvested from UDDTs can be and routinely are used in agriculture, many UDDTs installations do not apply any sort of recovery scheme. The UDDT is an example of a technology that can be used to achieve a sustainable sanitation system. This dry excreta management system is an alternative to pit latrines and flush toilets, especially where water is scarce, a connection to a sewer system and centralized wastewater treatment plant is not feasible or desired, fertilizer and soil conditioner are needed for agriculture, or groundwater pollution should be minimized.
context_section_description: During normal use, a UDDT is just as hygienic and safe to use as any other type of toilet. However, health aspects need to be considered during removal and emptying of the urine and feces containers of a UDDT. These health risks during emptying of the feces vault or container are significantly lower when compared to emptying the pit of pit latrines or the buckets of some types of dry toilets without urine diversion. However, the health risks are somewhat higher when compared to a flush toilet where the user does not have to carry out any emptying or maintenance tasks at the household level unless the flush toilet plugs, back-flows or otherwise experiences operating problems.
  Compared to a flush toilet being flushed without closing its lid, a UDDT would have a lower risk of Clostridium difficile spreading via aerosolization, as it does not involve turbulent water.
  
  Regarding the health risks associated with reuse activities, the World Health Organisation's guidelines' from 2006 titled "Guidelines for the safe use of wastewater, excreta and greywater in agriculture" explain the management of health risks associated with the use of excreta in agriculture. The key concept in these guidelines is the multiple barrier approach which can also be applied to reuse activities in connection with UDDTs.
caption: Dried fecal matter from UDDTs after external composting, now ready for reuse (Addis Ababa, Ethiopia)
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