Women’s toilet use behaviors and water use in a urine diversion squat pan toilet pilot

Understanding user behavior is critical to the adoption of technology; however, there is a paucity of data related to gender-specific sanitation practices and water-use patterns in toilet use despite the global imperative to increase attention toward the needs of women and girls. This user-focused study sought to understand the role of women’s behavior related to the urine diversion performance of a novel toilet design. Forty-one female users of urine diversion toilets installed in two shared bathroom sites in Coimbatore, India, were surveyed about their behavior during toilet use. About 32% of respondents reported behaviors that reduce urine separation efficiency in this system, including aiming urine directly into the hole of the squat pan instead of the ceramic surface (15%); facing backwards (12%); squatting only part way down (7%); and pouring water onto the pan while urinating (5%). Separately, 88% of respondents use available water to clean the floor around the toilet, a practice that may alter the relative volumes of generated blackwater and graywater. These findings may aid the design of future sanitation solutions. Most respondents did not identify the specific toilet design as different from conventional ones, suggesting that these behaviors may apply to broader use cases.

Duke Scholars

Author Sonia Grego Electrical and Computer Engineering