Mobile toilets in Addis Ababa

Eskender Tadesse with his mobile latrine in Addis Ababa.

Credit: WaterAid / Caroline Irby

"Clean and green the environment, create jobs and mobilise the local community".

These were the three ideas that made Sileshi Demissie start the Gashe Abera Molla Association, a movement that has now led to the creation of mobile toilets and a new partnership with WaterAid in Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia.

Sileshi, an Ethiopian by birth, returned to the city after 20 years as a successful singer in the USA and decided to do something about the social and environmental problems that plagued his home city.

He set up the new organisation and named it after a character in his songs - Gashe Abera, the old man who takes care of his local community.

Putting his artistic talents to a different use, Sileshi's first stop was to visit schools and through the use of music, dance, poems, drama and paintings encourage 13,000 students to look at the city's environmental problems like rubbish and pollution and think about how they could change the situation. Inspired, the students went home and told their families; who then told their friends. And so the first phase of the project had begun.

Work being carried out on a newly greened area of the city.

Credit: WaterAid / Caroline Irby

However, Sileshi wanted to do more than just get people thinking. He wanted action and changes in the city. Targeting the worst of the city sites he set to work.

With a team of homeless kids and local residents he transformed wasteland areas filled with pollution and waste into urban parks that were cleaned, greened, painted and fenced.

Coughing, respiratory diseases and allergies were reduced as a result and young unemployed people were trained in wood and metal work, recycling and in environmental management. Inspired by the changes seen in their communities local residents worked hard to keep their environment looking good.

But, there was a problem. The areas continued to be polluted by one main cause - urine. In a country where only 15% of the population are reported to have adequate sanitation, it is no surprise that people living in these deprived urban districts didn't have access to latrines.

"Give us toilets and we will use them," the community replied when asked why there was still urine in the new greened areas. In response Sileshi and his team came up with a novel approach - mobile toilets and kiosks that can be set up on the street.

The team approached WaterAid and soon became WaterAid's newest partner in the country and, with WaterAid's funding and support, the first set of latrines were set up in the city.

The idea was simple. An area with lots of urine has a clear need for a latrine. So, set one up, charge users a small fee and you can clean up the environment while providing jobs for homeless kids, who act as their attendants.

The latrines are emptied regularly by vacuum trucks, and while most actually remain in one fixed position where they attract regular users, they can be collected by lorries and moved to areas where they are most needed, hence the name 'mobile toilets'. As well as keeping the fee from the latrine users the attendants also make money from small kiosks which are attached to the side of the metal latrines where they sell goods to passers-by.

"When I came to Addis Ababa I had no work and as living on the street" explains Eskender Tadesse, one of the young people involved in the scheme. "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."

While the projects provide people like Eskender with a vital source of income, the attendants clearly feel a sense of responsibility for the environmental aspects of the projects as well, knowing that a clean environment will also attract more customers to their stall.

Fasika, her husband Demelsha and daughter Elshaday.

Credit: WaterAid / Caroline Irby

"My main income is from the kiosk," says Fasika another 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. I would like a bigger business to run and would also like to have my own flat."

The mobile toilet scheme is in its early phases, and WaterAid and Gashe Abera Molle Association are currently working together to see how more female users can be attracted, explore other materials which can be used to build the toilets and ensure the financial system is sustainable so that the attendants can pay for the vacuum trucks.

Initial signs are positive and the scheme shows great potential to not only benefit people like Fasika and Eskender, but also the other residents of Addis Ababa, as Bizhayu, a regular mobile latrine customer remarked: "It is very important to have mobile toilets, but not just here, we need them all over the city to keep the environment clean. They are very important for youths to get jobs in the city too."