Abstract
Abstract In the M'zab valley, dry toilets represent an ancestral dry sanitation system, serving as a source of fertilizer thanks to human excrement valorization. However, in the 20th century, local populations began to shun these systems. The objective of this article is to illustrate the importance of dry toilets on agricultural and environmental scales in ancient M'Zab, and the renewal of these systems in response to sanitation problems in the oasis after their decline. The hypothesis put forward is that dry toilets can act as a complementary system to conventional sanitation systems. Data were collected through interviews with the local population. Our results show that the use of dry toilets, and the resulting use of human excrement as fertilizer, has gone through three phases. First, a phase of strong recycling dynamics, followed by a second phase of decline in dry toilet use which is linked to the discovery of the Albian aquifer and flush toilet adoption. The third phase is characterized by dry toilet reuse in response to oasis degradation caused by sanitation and environmental problems. Some oasesians have taken the initiative to revert to dry toilets to ensure oasis system sustainability and to revive the practice of recycling human waste.
Highlights
In developing countries characterized by poor soil conditions and scarce water resources, human excreta used as fertilizer can address two problems: low food productivity and a lack of sanitation services (Sugihara 2020)
Through a chronological approach, we will attempt to shed some light on the importance of dry toilets in the ancient M’zab, by first describing them, and by determining the processes involved in the cleaning, recycling and recovery of human waste from these toilets for use in agriculture
Dry toilets remain a tried and trusted solution that can both protect the old oasis from pollution while reducing the costs involved in connecting homes to the sewerage system
Summary
Pit latrines are common in rural and peri-urban areas in developing countries They are considered as a closed-loop sustainable ecological sanitation system, which combines sanitation and agriculture (Langergraber & Muellegger 2005). On the other hand, is based on the principle that human excreta should not be disposed of, and that the environment can assimilate them (Langergraber & Muellegger 2005). These systems are more advantageous in areas of water scarcity as they preserve groundwater from contamination by pathogens and microorganisms. One study showed that in 2009, the total available phosphorus in feces was about 1.68 million tons, which could meet
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