Students from Fiji’s fourteen provinces and  Rotuma from the Centre for Appropriate Technology & Development (CATD) in Tailevu are the first in the Pacific to use the  HomeBiogas Bio-Toilet Kit as part of their sustainable living to save water and use renewable energy to provide for their daily meals. 

The systems which were donated by the State of Israel through, Israel’s official international development cooperation program, MASHAV, in partnership with the, HomeBiogas official distributor, Pacific Grow, was commissioned at the school in Nadave.

The Bio-Toilet connects to the HomeBiogas system, which is an off-grid appliance.

The main appliance, the HomeBiogas system,  takes waste such as food scraps,  animal manure, and humanure using a biological process, and converts into clean cooking energy. Director of CATD, Aporosa Silatolu, said the school with a roll of 95 students through this partnership and assistance, said this capacity building in using innovative technology is an endeavour to push a behavioural change towards more environmentally sustainable practices so CATD graduands will not only be qualified mainstream plumbers but additionally green plumbers. 

“The CATD is an advocate for developing appropriate technology that preserves the environment and reduces waste.

The large quantities of organic waste produced at the school cause not only sanitary and environmental issues but is also expensive to dispose off.

We will not have to cut any more trees or use fossil fuels, and will save about 8 litres of water per flush as the bio toilet only uses 1.2 litres of water, and we hope that with the other strategies we have in place we can work towards becoming carbon neutral,” he said. 

Ambassador of the State of Israel to the Pacific, His Excellency, Mr Roi Rosenblit, said Fiji like other Pacific Islands is at the frontline of climate change and technology as such adds to the sustainability table which is designed to promote more environmentally friendly and ecologically responsible decisions.

“The State of Israel stands with Fiji and the Pacific with our innovation skills to develop the capabilities needed to adapt, prepare, mitigate and build resilience to the climate crisis with the use of cutting edge technology such as the one installed at the Centre for Appropriate Technology & Development,” he said. 

Both systems have received the European Community CE stamp of approval for safety and the HomeBiogas company who manufactures them is the only Biogas systems manufacturer to have International Safety Organisations (ISO) certifications.

Used world over the systems are also set up at the United Nations refugee camps to treat waste in a sustainable way, have readily available biofertilser and cooking energy.