LATRINE COMPOSTING – A HYGIENIC EVALUATION

Summary

Thermophilic composting of faecal matter from urine diverting toilets can effectively reduce the numbers of faecal bacterial indicators and pathogen. Already at 50C, the numbers of pathogens, including the Salmonella phage, and indicator organisms analysed were effectively reduced within a few days of exposure. Although the numbers of enterococci were reduced, they were continuous isolated as purple colonies on Slanetz and Bartleys agar after prolonged exposure at all temperature levels studied. This indicates that certain micro-organisms present in the composted faecal material, Enterococcus spp. or micro-organisms resembling enterococci on the agar medium, can survive and multiply even at 60C. These findings question the use of enterococci as faecal indicators and test organisms to control the efficiency of composting of human faeces. Further work is in progress to identify the taxonomy of these organisms.