For over three decades, Marachi Subburaman has been working tirelessly to improve the lives of his fellow Indians through SCOPE, his non-profit organization based in Trichy, India.

Subburaman began his career in development as a young man building low-cost houses in the surrounding villages. He opened SCOPE (Society for Community Organisation and People’s Education) in 1986, with the objective of helping women build income through activities like tailoring, mat-weaving, and agriculture.

Focusing on sanitation

After a decade, Subburaman decided to measure SCOPE’s effectiveness in helping families increase their income. His study revealed that the biggest expense for families in rural Tamil Nadu was healthcare and hospital visits. The cause of these piling medical bills, he found, was a lack of safe sanitation and water.

This, he realized, was the key to improving families’ lives and pocketbooks. If every family could have a safe toilet in their home—and use it properly—that money could be used instead for food and necessary items.

In 1996, SCOPE decided to focus solely on improving sanitation for the community. Soon, Subburaman developed a series of toilets called Ecosan that separate waste to use for farming.

Helping local villages build toilets

India’s current government initiative to improve sanitation, the Swachh Bharat Mission, pays families subsidies for constructing toilets. But the money comes after the toilet is already built. Here, SCOPE helps bridge the gap for families who want to build a toilet but can’t pay for the upfront cost of construction. The NGO lends the family money to build, then receives the government subsidy to pay for the work.

Over the years, SCOPE has helped build more than 20,000 toilets in homes across Trichy, including many Ecosan models. But the toilets weren’t as effective as Subburaman had hoped.

Rural Indian toilets connect to two pipes that run off into two separate pits. This is called an “offset twin-pit” toilet. Waste drains exclusively into one pit until it fills up completely, which takes about 2 years. Once the pit is full, a mason adjusts the toilet so it drains into the second pipe and pit. After a year, the first pit turns into fertilizer that can be safely removed and used for farming.

This model of toilets greatly benefits rural villages, but the new designs still posed their own problems. When switching from one pipe to the other, the ceramic toilet has to be reopened, the first pipe sealed shut, and the second pipe’s seal broken. It’s an intensive process that requires a skilled contractor—not to mention the mess involved. And in India, where the lowest levels of the caste system were once relegated to jobs like these, touching waste has overwhelmingly negative connotations.

A better toilet model for India

Subburaman, upon visiting a sanitation expo in New Delhi, found a better solution in the SATO toilet series. SATO’s V-trap toilets, designed specifically for India, removes the hassle of switching between pits. The toilet connects to two plastic pipes that are durable and easy to construct. After the first pit fills up, any long stick-like object can be used to switch the direction of the toilet. There’s no mess and no re-construction required.

“Here, with the SATO pan, there’s no doubt about changing the pit. Because it’s really simple—moving the door,” he explained. “Anybody can do it.”

Subburaman said that many people in Tamil Nadu “considered toilets, but they weren’t able to use the toilet because water is not there.” SATO makes it possible for these people to use toilets, since the technology requires less than 1 liter to flush—a total of just 5 liters per day for a family of 4.

After getting his hands on a few plastic pans, Subburaman immediately began promoting the SATO toilet. He’s spoken to government officials and NGOs about constructing toilets with SATO pans.

Bringing SATO toilets to children in need

Last December, SCOPE partnered with other NGOs and LIXIL to install SATO toilets at the Panchayat Union Primary School in the village of Pagalavadi. The school already had a block toilets, but girls were forced to wait outside for boys to finish before going in. And without a roof, the toilets became unusable on rainy days.

The project installed a block of SATO toilets for girls, complete with washing stations, hooks to hang dresses, and an incinerator for teachers’ sanitary napkins.

Subburaman sees projects like these as a crucial part of changing behavior in India.

“Changing the mindset is not easy,” he explained. “Even though they construct a toilet, they aren’t using it….That’s why I am more concentrated on the school children. If it is changing the school children, it’s easy to change the mindset.”

The teachers and girls were delighted with the new addition. Two girls explained how boys used to shout at them for using the boy’s toilet, but now they don’t shout anymore.

“This looks very good, very modern and very clean,” the headmistress said. She teaches the student songs about hand-washing and using toilets to teach them the importance of good sanitation.

SATO’s partnership with local NGOs

SATO technology helps NGOs like SCOPE achieve their initiatives of improving sanitation. By partnering with great on-the-ground organizations, SATO aims to bring safe sanitation to 100 million people by 2020.