Dena Fam
University of Western Sydney
Design and cultural acceptability of waterless toilets
Introducing ecological sanitation (ecosan) as a water saving strategy in public urban areas requires a combination of technical and maintenance systems appropriate for the existing socio-cultural context. A dry sanitation system is more than just a toilet: it must deal with management issues, disposal and potential reuse of treated urine and faeces, grey water discharges, comfort, affordability and health aspects. When all these issues are considered within a design strategy, there is a greater likelihood of cultural acceptability. The appropriate design and improved user interface of such a culturally sensitive product has the potential of increasing the rate of acceptance within society and therefore contributing to a changed water culture in Australia.
Biography
Dena Fam is an honours candidate at the University of Western Sydney within the School of Engineering (Industrial Design) supervised by Dr Abby Lopes. Her current honours project aims to design a culturally acceptable dry sanitation system for public toilets in urban parks. This project was designed as an urban water saving strategy with the potential to irrigate and maintain urban park gardens with recycled toilet waste.
She is also the recipient of the CRC Irrigation Futures honours scholarship researching benefits of irrigation in open public spaces.
Email: 98058121@student.uws.edu.au