Travelling toilets

Picture from WaterAid/Caroline Irby

Convenient conveniences

Portable privies

Sileshi Demissie, a successful singer in the USA, wanted to do three things for his native Ethiopia

• improve the environment
• create jobs
• mobilise the community

It soon became obvious that one major source of pollution was caused by lack of sanitation. So the team involved approached WaterAid, and came up with mobile toilet. A small charge is made for use, the environment is improved and the previously unemployed attendants have a means of earning some money Most are kept in one place but they can be moved by lorry to places where they are needed and these often have a small kiosk attached, giving an additional source of income.

"My main income is from the kiosk," says Fasika a mobile toilet attendant who sells women's accessories at her kiosk, "I also keep this area clean - I feel it is my responsibility. Before I had this job I was a homeless street kid begging for money from passers by. "Thanks to God, I now have a child who is able to go to school, I can rent my own house and I have a savings account too and so I am living comfortably. I have bigger visions now. My first priority is that I never want my children to see the things that I saw on the street, or to have to go out begging. They will have money instead."

"When I came to Addis Ababa I had no work and as living on the street" explains Eskender Tadesse, pictured above. "Then I got involved with helping to clean and green the area. Then, when this part was finished I started with the mobile toilet. "There is a big difference between the life I was living before and the life I have now. Before I was homeless and I didn't have an income to support myself. Now, with the toilet I have an income and am saving 50birr (£3.25) a month."