The national “Salon des Solidarités”

By Sarah Ben Hadj -- From June 1st to 3rd, the fourth edition of the solidarity exhibition took place in Paris. This is the most important meeting for French and European actors of international solidarity.

No less than 18,868 visitors toured the aisles (vs. 15,000 in 2010, an increase of 26%) to reach out to blueEnergy and 249 other exhibitors. blueEnergy was enthusiastic to present our work inNicaragua and wind turbine workshops in Paris. We displayed a small wind turbine in our exhibition, which was a big hit!

The theme of the exhibition was the creation of the "innovation garden" which represents a space dedicated to present technical innovation in the areas of eco-building, water/hygiene/sanitation, agriculture and energy. blueEnergy presented the experimental solar dry latrine and received the innovation award for water/hygiene/sanitation sector.

blueEnergy receiving the innovation award for the solar latrine

What is a solar dry latrine?
This type of latrine has been tested by blueEnergy with the aim of reducing pollution caused by human waste, raise awareness on hygiene practices and assist with the creation of compost.

The operation is extremely simple: the compartmentalized seat of the toilet enables the separation of feces and urine. The urine passes through a sand and carbon filter before returning to the earth. The feces remains in the composting chamber, which is capped by a metal plate painted black. During the day the chamber heats up to a relatively high temperature, which eliminates pathogens faster than conventional dry latrines (about 45 days for solar latrines vs. at least 6 months for conventional dry latrines). Moreover, this type of latrine does not require water.

Constructing the chamber of the solar latrine

For the moment the latrine is still in the experimental period, but results show that the technology is extremely efficient.

We would like to thank Marie-Claude Scherrer and Michele Grégoire for their organization and power of negotiation (we were given more than twice the space to present!), and our volunteers Elisabeth Cremieux, Pierre Santraud, Gaetan Russo, Francois cochemé, Claire Winé, Binjamin Loiseau et Antoine Veyrat for installing, assisting and uninstalling the stand.

Part of the bE France team: François, Pierre, Marie-Claude, Emilie and Michèle