L’assainissement productif à Aguié, Niger : le secteur agricole prend le volant

In the department of Aguié, south of the Niger, the "Productive Sanitation - Aguié" project create demand for sanitation through participatory experimentation, where hygienised urine is tested as liquid fertilizer. Following the convincing results on vegetable crops, the demand was high for latrines and urinals that facilitate the collection of this new fertilizer.

Simple urinals are distributed to all households, and two types of latrines with urine separation are promoted and subsidized at 25,000 CFA Francs each. Awareness in the villages is based on the risk associated with excreta and the resources that are present. Annually excreta from one family at Aguié equals chemical fertilizer contained in a bag of urea (50kg) and a bag of NPK (15:15:15) (50 kg), worth approximately 40,000 CFA francs on the local market.

IFAD (International Foundation for Agricultural Development) is funding this productive sanitation project to strengthen the agricultural production of small farmers. A close collaboration was established between the partners in the agriculture and sanitation project. The extension workers will have a key role to play in the dissemination of the approach on a large-scale. It is possible that agricultural production is the engine of rural sanitation. The sanitation sector can make much progress in exploiting the clear link with agricultural production.