Mountain Green Latrines (Intro)

It's a long time coming and is still in prototype development phase. The man behind the project is Debark resident and entrepreneur Banti Bantali. We are working closely to develop a cost effective latrine solution. It is based upon the WHO spec ventilated pit latrine. 

It's a social business. Yes it is designed to make money to grow and its potential for health benefits for local residents is enormous. The issues around remote sanitation and water related disease in Ethiopia are second only on the planet to Niger (maybe we'll get there one day : ) .

This latrine structure is under design with Banti, Origin and two key UK partners: Nick Richards of HPH London who is the prototype and construction advisor with Richard Dowdall, our humanitarian minded Structural Engineer advisor. This prototype phase is crucial and we will update you soon.

Meanwhile in Ethiopia, Banti makes plans for a Needs Assessment, Market Assessment and begins Community Sensitisation as well as a sales strategy to get the idea of these products out there to the people who will benefit.

Don't forget this is a SOCIAL BUSINESS. No one is getting rich and Origin is providing the capital investment to get the business off the ground and getting the products out there at the minimum possible price to allow the business to pay fair wages as well as set a pricing strategy that makes it affordable to even the poorest households. Of course, financing options will be made available. 

We also intend to structure this sensitisation and financing options around the well trodden successful route of women's collectives (if you want to know more, please read 'Poor Economics' by Esther Duflo and Abhijit Banerjee) as, let's face it, they're the ones really leading our communities... The women that is : )