Prof Vinod Tare and his team, in collaboration with UNICEF, is at present installing four such public toilets in Kanmari Ganj Road locality of Aligarh district. Also, a similar toilet will be installed on the Chennai-Thiruvananthapuram train on an experimental basis, as the project is also being handled by the Technology Mission on Railway safety (TMRS) — a joint initiative of the Ministry of Railways and IIT-K.

In an exclusive interview to The Indian Express, Tare said: “These toilets can reuse flushed water rather than discharge it along with human waste. This was possible by not allowing liquid and solid waste to mix. Moreover, with every flush, 5 to 8 litres of water is wasted. This will cut down the wastage to a large extent.”

He added that such toilets will separately collect solid and liquid wastes in different tanks. “The pipes, fitted with micro filters clean the liquid. Smell traps ensure that the toilet does not stink,” Tare said.

In case of trains, both the tanks are emptied and the solid waste is allowed to decompose for about a week with fresh waste added from time to time.

Tare added, “These toilets will also prevent damage to rail tracks. It will maintain sanitary conditions at railway stations by preventing dumping of human waste on the tracks.”

In community toilets, where electricity may not be available, hand pumps can be used to take the re-used water to the overhead tank.