page_title: Urine-diverting dry toilet
section_title: Terminology
hierarchical_section_title: Urine-diverting dry toilet / Terminology
caption_attribution_description: Inside of the UDDT
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: Alternative names for UDDTs include "urine diversion" for the "UD" part (instead of "urine-diverting") in connection with terms like "dehydration", "dry", "drying", "desiccation" (for the second "D") which gives quite a high number of possible mutations of the terms that UDDT can stand for. The "T" always stands for toilet. These variations in wording place different emphasis on the amount of drying that takes place in the feces vaults. Probably the most advanced drying takes place in UDDTs that feature two vaults or in UDDTs that have a built-in electrical fan. As a general overarching term the adjective "dry" is better than "dehydration" as it applies to a larger range of UDDT types.
  UDDTs are often considered synonymous with "ecosan toilets" (ecological sanitation) or with composting toilets. However, neither of these associations is correct. The term ecosan is in fact much broader and not limited to this type of toilet. Not all UDDTs are used in conjunction with the practice of reusing excreta. There are also many other ecosan technologies that hygienically return nutrients to the food chain, such as subsurface artificial wetlands that produce fodder for cows. In addition, there is usually little composting taking place in the UDDT vaults (instead, it might be carried out in a secondary composting step which is external to the toilets).
  Urine-diverting composting toilets are similar to UDDTs in that they also collect urine and feces separately. Treatment is achieved through the composting, a process quite different from pathogen removal by dehydration.
  In Malawi, UDDTs are also called Skyloos.
caption: Double-vault UDDT used in squatting position in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso
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