Hygienic and comfortable public toilet

Farhana Rashid is the cofounder of Bhumijo, which won  BRAC Urban Innovation Challenge in 2016. Farhana holds a Bachelor's degree in Architecture. After working few years as an architect, Farhana completed her Master’s  in Sustainable Urban Planning and Design at KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden with Swedish institute scholarship. She has worked as a project coordinator for research on Dhaka regional planning at the Bengal Institute. With the vision of livable and healthy cities, she initiated her start-up ‘Bhumijo’ to ensure hygienic public toilets. As a spatial planning consultant, she has worked with Euro-consultant MOTTMacdonald for water as a leverage project. She also volunteered as a community architect with a platform of community architects and artisans. As an international student ambassador and as a board member of the SI- NFGL network,  She has organized events and workshops for a sustainable future . She  is also won prestigious Acumen fellowship.

Catering to the specific need and habits of thecommunities Sanitation centres at urban bazars facilities will contribute to health safety and improvement of life for the poor. Bhumijo’s toilet facilities will be their major community hub in those markets. Rather than just being a toilet, it will work as a convenience and health centre  through  appropriate service and product (hygiene products, mobile payments, tea/snacks corner, video download for entertainment ect) within an affordable price. Bhumijo sanitation center creates a mix of different revenues and payment systems which enables the business to be affordable for the poor and still maintain profitability. These will also demonstrate the awareness of the various issues of health and hygiene through appropriate design.  WIth all these services this is how a  needed bathroom break will bring health and joy to the life of the poor people

Despite significant improvement in open defecation in Bangladesh, Sanitation and Hygiene remains a major challenge for urban low-income population. With population of 21 million, Dhaka metro area  has more than 200 markets. Thousands of people visit these markets daily and don't have good sanitation facilities. People engaged as shopkeepers, labors and vendors in these markets are mostly from the low income segment. A significant portion of the shoppers are also from low income groups. The existing market toilets serve the daily needs of bathing, toilet use and cloth washing etc for the shopkeepers, laborers and vendors. But  these toilets are in very poor state with poor design and construction. These facilities operated by people without proper hygiene training and remain very unhygienic. Men can use them in extreme need but it is very difficult for women to use. In such a context women in Bangladesh usually drink less water and delay in voiding which leads to UTI and kidney diseases. The COVID-19, has revealed the necessity for hygienic public toilet facility more than ever before. If these market toilets are unhygenic they can become the key sources of spreading  diseases, on the other hand better facilities can contribute to health-safety. 

Only building better sanitation centers is not enough to ensure the long term improved service delivery. To deliver a rich experience while ensuring profitability, along with general facility provision (male toilet, urinal, shower, wash stations, female and disable-friendly toilet)  Additional facilities ( driniking water, landraumat , hygiene and health kisosk  would will be included as revenue stream. Bhumijo plans to develop a team with trained care takers, cleaners, supervisors and managers.

Beside ensuring an essential sanitation model the project will also prototype several decentralized waste management, water recycling, sustainable energy systems for better environmental impact. Prototype will help to understand the functionality and business aspects for future scale up. Improvement in technology will also be done incorporating cleaning automation, safety security, user satisfaction and digital transactions. 

Our approach is unique in designing and operating public toilets that accommodate the local needs. The design will promote a rich sanitation experience.  Finally, all of our designs are women-centric and disabled accessible, which is rare in public toilets of Bangladesh. 

We have piloted different revenue models and continuously thrive as a business. Our sustainable business plan ensures affordability of the consumers as well as proper revenue generation. 

Shopkeepers, labors and vendors working in these markets are mostly from the low income group  who spend more than 12 hrs a day in the market. Some of them just go to their home just to sleep. Even some of them, especially the labors also stay at night in these market., 

The toilets in the market facilities are an essential part of the shopkeepers daily life. Serving their needs from morning to night for toilet, shower and cloth wash these facilities serve as community toilets for many low income labors working at markets. Both the design and infrastructure of those existing toilets are very poor in condition. Most of these facilities are run by people with proper awareness and hygiene training through leasing systems. With such poor infrastructure and maintenance the facilities remain dirty and unhygienic.

Bhumijo started his journey by creating the country's women only public toilet. Gender sensitivity remains a core value. The proposed facilities although will  definitely ensure the inclusion of others. Besides Bhumijo facilities creates exclusive provision for women, transgender and differently abled people. Accessibility and safety remains the basic principle of the design. Also presence of women attendant also plays critical role in gender inclusion

Every one in four people don’t have a decent toilet of their own. Many relay on poorly maintained low income community toilet while they are at home. But they have to spend around 12- 16 hours a day at Bazars to earn their living. The Existing Bazar toilets are affordable but dirty. Bhumijo initiative ensures the clean toilet service delivery to these low income people in affordable price. The low income community not only gets clean toilet but also improved hygiene behaviours. By bundling the sanitation service with other revenue streams Bhumijo ensures business sustainability also.

From my childhood I am used to drink less water while going out. The equation is quite simple, if I drink less, I dont have to use public toilet. And I am not alone, I have seen my mother, sister and female friends doing the same. But the result was not the same, I have seen my close relative dying due to kidney failure which caused because of drinking less water. As an Architect and Urban Planner I always kept thinking how I can do something about it. With this challenge in mind we formed Bhumijo with a vision of healthy people, healthy environment and healthy city. By winning Urban Innovation Challange, by BRAC we got a seed funding to transform an underutilized toilet into a modern women only toilet., the pilot initiative has gained remarkable traction in social media and most importantly, toilet users have raved about their experience of using this toilet facility. 

 I like to see problems as potentials and challenges into possibilities. I would like to create awareness and motivation on this issue from policy making to user level. And thus, I would like to bring impact on health for all .

 For example the previous toilet weren’t even used once a day by the sales girls from the market. But after bhumijos design and maintenance this place has become truly a place for their comfort. The sales girl from adjacent markets has also subscribed our services.  This also improved the habits of sales girls, garments workers who are mostly from low income community. This place has become a place of comfort and relaxation in the whole area. As, there was not any proper toilet in the area, this toilet has been a place of pride for the whole community. Most of the shopkeeper and sales girl now proudly inform their customer that the market have a proper and hygienic public toilet. We often found customers, who just came to market to use our toilet, as there is not  proper toilet adjacent to the area.  

This positive changes keep me going ahead.

In the last 3 years,  With my leadership the pilot initiative at noor mansion market, Dhaka has gained remarkable traction in various media. The business model is self-sustainable within this short period of time. Getting inspired from the Bhumijo facility the market authority improved another facility with their own fund with technical support from us.

Besides, Government, private sector and NGO’s have contacted Bhumijo after learning about this initiative. In January 2019 the second facility opened in Rangpur. Upon invitation by the city mayor two public toilet construction is ongoing at Narayanganj. With funding from UnileverIn o we have done a community toilet at Kallyanpur, a low income community. We are working with SNV for developing public toilet management model. Appointed by Water aid we are managing four public toilets of Dhaka. We are in conversation with Dhaka south city, Railway, BIWTA for inclusive public toilet. In the last three years we have served 400 k people. 

In 2020, Bhumijo is setting up 05 sanitation centers at urban low-income markets of Dhaka testing a variety of business models. This project is in partnership with Dhaka City corporations and  Unilever Transform under the guidance of the Toilet Board Coalition accelerator program is testing out the functionality and profitability of the models.

From the beginning of this initiative I often have to hear about the sustainability of the project whether I will continue working for this or not. At the very begining, we have worked on the diversification of the revenue to make the sanitation centres operationally sustainable.

 that Our recent experiences during covid, when most of our operations and projects were stopped and there was not enough revenue. Also there was a challenge how to ensure hygiene of the facilities at affordable price. Along with my team, we constantly work to solve this problem and came up with low tech and cost effective handtouchless systems that can be easily fit into any existing toilet facilities.

 that Our recent experiences during covid, when most of our operations and projects were stopped and there was not enough revenue. Also there was a challenge how to ensure hygiene of the facilities at affordable price. Along with my team, we constantly work to solve this problem and came up with low tech and cost effective handtouchless systems that can be easily fit into any existing toilet facilities.

In the last 3 years, the pilot initiative at noor mansion market, Dhaka has gained remarkable traction in various media. The business model is self-sustainable within this short period of time. Getting inspired from the Bhumijo facility the market authority improved another facility with their own fund with technical support from us.

Besides, Government, private sector and NGO’s have contacted Bhumijo after learning about this initiative. In january 2019 the second facility opened in Rangpur. Upon invitation by the city mayor two public toilet construction is ongoing at Narayanganj. With funding from unilever we have done a community toilet at Kallyanpur, a low income community. We are working with SNV for developing public toilet management model. Appointed by Water aid we are managing four public toilets of Dhaka. We are in conversation with Dhaka south city, Railway, BIWTA for inclusive public toilet. In the last three years we have served 150 k people.

Our approach is unique in designing and operating public toilets that accommodate the local needs. The design will promote a rich sanitation experience. Also, culturally appropriate design in various parts of the country provides maximum customer engagement and satisfaction. Finally, all of our designs are women-centric and disabled accessible, which is rare in public toilets of Bangladesh. In 2020, environmental sustainability features are also being tested on the facilities and we expect these features to become a permanent part of our facility design. 

While the core model is sanitation, it also leverages the fact that people will visit the sanitation centre regularly, and perhaps, multiple times each day. This provides opportunities to bundle other revenue streams based on local context  - e;g;'s of revenue streams. We have piloted different revenue models and continuously thrive as a business. Our sustainable business plan ensures affordability of the consumers as well as proper revenue generation. 

The theory of Change for Bhumijo Sanitation initiative has been developed through the discussions among team, user experience and feedback. Working the improve the poor public sanitation scenario of Bangladesh the key pillars for the theory of change includes personal health, social inclusion, environmental wellbeing and economic sustainability.

 Activities

-   Better designed sanitation facilities establishment.

-   Training and development of toilet cleaners.

-   Technology enabled clean and hygienic toilet operation.

-   Waste water management, recycling and other sustainable technology inclusion.

 Outputs

-   People are expiring clean, malodor, germfree and comfortable public sanitation experience.

-   Low income people getting access to clean and hygienic toilet at affordable price.

-   Toilet Usage, health and environmental data is collected through technology enabled automated systems.

-   Beside core toilet service, additional service converts the sanitation center as community focal point within Bazars.

Outcomes

-   Change of perception about public sanitation center as dirty, source of bad odor and diseases spreaders.

-   Improved hygiene behavior.

-   Creates Inclusive city for all

-   Pandemic residence cities

-   Clean toilet service as a sustainable business

The direct beneficiaries of the facilities includes shopkeepers, market workers, floating people and shoppers. By conducting an initial survey of different markets of Dhaka, the demand has been analyzed. It is estimated that, in the first year the number of beneficiaries will include around 3,000 as subscribed users / month (for toilet and  shower use) and 100,000 pay per user / month. Based on our  initial projection, water will be consumed by at least around 25,000 people / month. Apart from this the health kiosk will serve a significant number of people through service and awareness. The beneficiaries will not only have access to improved sanitation and safe drinking water but also have behavioural change programs for better health and hygiene. Combining all the total direct beneficiary will be more than 150,000 per month, which means 2 million per year.  As per projection the direct beneficiaries by 2022 will be around 4 million.

The direct beneficiaries are direct users of the facilities and indirect beneficiaries will include who can be aware of health and hygiene through direct beneficiaries.  The indirect beneficiaries may include the family members of the subscribed users. With an average family size of 4.5 the indirect benefit will reach 25 million by 2025.

Our initial value proposition is to deliver comfort and promote healthy life. Our aim is to create a safe and inclusive service for low income communities, including women. 

• Bhumijo as an organization aims to create dignified job for the public sanitation service providers (cleaners and caretakers). The project will support organizational capacity building to deliver better sanitation service. . 

• The operational and business knowledge gained will set the path for further scale up Through the initiative the company hopes to gain enough profit for where it can invest in development of new facilities. 

• By incorporating additional components like waste management, water recycling, sustainable energy systems, smart technologies the initiative will test their functional and financial feasibility. 

To reach our goal our main activities will be to

i) Build few facilities: Development of 10-12 new facilities at different markets of Dhaka 2021.

ii) Develop organizational capacity:  

Capacity building will be done as we intend to scale up our enterprise and offer our services around the country.Recruitment and training of public toilet maintenance staff and operators will be done on a regular basis. 

iii) Test additional functionality:

Additional functionality will be tested by incorporating various technologies that include    

1. Smart toilet technologies: real time monitoring & operations automation, digital payment, consumer insights and community health monitoring

1. Waste management: 

            Two or three different treatment technology will be prototyped to explore the best fit 

Our plan is to build and maintain 20 facilities 2021 and 100 facilities within next 5 years of time.

Current barriers are as follows,

1. Sanitation is still seen as non profit thing and profitability through better customer services needs to be tested with more models.

2. For better maintenance we need skilled, efficient and motivated team. Often people have negative impression on  the cleaners and attendant. Their jobs are not dignified and people dont feel motivated to be in those positions.  Also technologies can help us in better maintenance, but are not yet affordable.  

3. Long term strategic partnership with different agency required.

We have identified the following critical areas for scale:

1. Through ongoing initiatives and proposed initiatives we will test out various value propositions and revenue mix. Will Refine profitability through better customer value - not just in sanitation but also in bundling other revenue streams. 

1. Will use technology to reduce costs and make better revenue decisions - thereby improving centre-level profitability. 

1. We are building a trained and organized team along with a systematic operation system which will facilitate future scale up. 

1. We already have a five year long  MoU with Dhaka North city corporation  to build and operate public toilets at city corporation owned  markets. We are also in the process of building strategic partnership with other Govt, Non-govt and private sector leveraging which the scale up will be done.

To scale up the initiative there will be need for additional financing to set up new facilities. The additional financing can come from debt, equity. 

Bhumijo has formed several strategic partnerships as well:

• By proving the concept with the first pilot at a market Bhumijo raised initial equity investment from BRAC to develop the organization. Mr KAM Morshed, senior director BRAC also sits on Bhumijo board provisioning business guidance and networking.  

• Besides the organization raised investment from Transform (Joint initiative by Uniliver Global and DFID) to setup and operate facility in markets. The transform project will help better understand establish the market toilet initiative by the end of 2020. The learning from this will be applicable to the proposed project at 2021. 

• Bhumijo is also part of the Toilet Board Coaltion accelerator program, through which the Unilever Bangladesh team is currently acting as mentor for consumer insights and marketing. Also Bhumijo is able to access TBC’s global platform

• Through transform project Bhumijo already have develop partnership with Dhaka North City Corporation and market committees. 

The project has been designed by mixing of customer and revenue segments as progessive tariff system. Progressive payment system allows applying different tariffs based on usage patterns and affordability of the income group.. The shopkeepers, workers will be offered subscriptions. Currently the shopkeepers pay 0.34 - 0.57 USD / person / month (toilet) subscription fees for using dirty facilities. Per use they have to pay 0.02 - 0.05 for toilet, 0.1 for shower now. The subscription fee for the clean facility by Bhumijo will be 3 Euro / person / month for shower and toilet use. The daily cost comes to only 0.13 / day which should be quite affordable to people earning 105 USD / day.  Beside giving low-income users the service at a lower price the subscription model provides a fixed revenue which makes the management more efficient. Pay per use customers will be shoppers who are from higher income groups and able to pay more. 

Besides the core sanitation revenue, there will be a monthly income stream from marketing,  product placement and advertisements in walls, drinking water stations, handwashing stations etc. All additional services - drinking water filter, locker service, cloth washing or hygiene product sale , will augment the core sanitation revenue and make the business profitable as a whole, while delivering substantial value to the market communities.

We have identified the following critical areas for scale:

1. Through ongoing initiatives and proposed initiatives we will test out various value propositions and revenue mix. Will Refine profitability through better customer value - not just in sanitation but also in bundling other revenue streams. 

1. Will use technology to reduce costs and make better revenue decisions - thereby improving centre-level profitability. 

1. We are building a trained and organized team along with a systematic operation system which will facilitate future scale up. 

1. We already have a five year long  MoU with Dhaka North city corporation  to build and operate public toilets at city corporation owned  markets. We are also in the process of building strategic partnership with other Govt, Non-govt and private sector leveraging which the scale up will be done.

To scale up the initiative there will be need for additional financing to set up new facilities. The additional financing can come from debt, equity.

35394 USD As equity, ( From BRAC)

338380 USD As grant, ( From Transform, a joint initiative of Unilever and 

70788 USD as Revenue ( Toilet design, maintennace)

capacity building:                   217000 USD

Infrastructure:                        150000 USD

Additional Funtionality 

( inlcuding waste treatement 

automation and odor control)      35000 USD

Infrastructure development: USD 150,000 to setup 12 - 13 new facilities 

Operation, team and brand building: USD 375,000 to develop operation team with new recruitment and training

Prototyping additional functionality: USD 35,000 for waste treatment, Automation and odor control, sensor technology integration

As we are working to make sanitation service as profitable business, mentor ship with business expertise specially with sanitation will be really helpful for us. 

Support for training and management of the team is also required. We are in conversation with few organizations like Circuit riders, school of dignity for the training of  the cleaners and attendant. These kind of support is crucial for maintaining good quality sanitation experiences  

As Also technologies for better maintenance and also with less environmental impact is much needed for our business. We believe Elevate and MIT can support us in these regards.

To make the initiative successful the key partnership required in the following areas,

1. Mentoring for business developments: Support for business model development will help us ensuring sustainability.

2. HR management: Cleaning toilet is not yet seen as a dignified job in society. Knowledge and expertise on how to dignify the profession and also motivate people to do it better is needed.

3.Awareness creation: There is lack in health- hygiene awareness among low income community and leaders. More aware community will make this business better. There is still strong social taboo among women in Bangladesh about using public toilets where awareness needs to be created. 

4. Technology knowledge Toilet technologies needs to be developed along with social and operational relevance for better monitoring. Although this project includes technological aspects, but still knowledge partnership with academic and research filled will be helpful.

For Funding and revenue model- organizations with sanitation business expertise
Talent recruitment- Organizations that can help us building our team and help us in training

Monitoring and evaluation through technology- MIT