It is a common sight to see people urinating in public places across India and the situation is aggravated by the lack of public sanitation facilities. Despite various initiatives by the government, the existing sanitation facilities don’t seem to meet the mark. 

To tackle the problem of public urinals, Ashwani Aggarwal, founder of the start-up Basic Shit, based out of India’s capital city Delhi, came up with low-cost, dry, and portable urinals.

“When we were travelling on the road, I saw that there are no toilets for urination and the condition of public toilets are very poor. And that’s where we started. We thought of digging a three feet hole, put a vase inside, put different layers of charcoal, sawdust and sand so that urine gets filtered out, while going into the ground. And it worked perfectly,” he says.

Started in 2014, BasicShit recycled around 10 tonnes of plastic and has installed at least 25 installations across Delhi. 

“For public urination we have made a urinal which requires no maintenance and it can be assembled in one day. Toilets for women are very limited on streets. According to our research,  there is one toilet seat for 4,000 people. For running a women’s toilet, you need women attendees to clean it, it requires proper maintenance and the dustbins need to be cleaned. In the coming days we will crack a women’s toilet and bring it to a real time public place,” he says. Aggarwal.

He further adds, “To convince people to use a new material instead of concrete or cement, it is a bit difficult but we are working on it and we are looking at the future. In the coming time there is going to be a massive war for water and that’s why we are forcing on dry toilets and dry sanitation solutions.”

Aggarwal can be an inspiration for many. “There are millions of problems and you can’t solve all of them. So, you have to find one simple problem and the solution for that is near you,” he concludes.