A novel use for rice husks in Ghana.

In Tamale, Northern Ghana, 25-year-old Hyginus Laari kept coming back to a problem he saw widespread in his community. Open defecation, instead of using toilets, contributes to the spread of bacterial diseases such as cholera and diarrhea.

The tropical climate of Tamale makes its soil favorable for the cultivation of staple cereals, legumes and tubers, and rice is a very popular food. But when milling rice, the husk on the outer part of the grain is often thrown away-wasted.

Yet the husk has unique physical and chemical properties that are not being harnessed in Ghana and across many other African countries. Laari-a regional finalist in the Young Champions of the Earth prize in 2018-decided to change this, using waste rice to address the problem of open defecation.

His idea is an eco-toilet, installed using boards made from rice husks. The husks are first dried and screened for particles of the right size. Then, they are blended and a special adhesive in liquid form is sprayed to make a sheet. The sheets are then compressed, heated, cooled, trimmed and sanded down.

The toilets are made using a granite flooring. A commode is then inserted and pipes leading toward a pit, and rice-husk panels are screwed into place to complete the walls around the toilets. Laari is now looking for funding to scale up his idea.

'Improper waste management has serious health and environmental consequences. If it persists, it will undermine Africa's efforts to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals,' Abdouraman Bary, UN Environment Programme's Chemicals, Waste and Air Quality Africa sub-programme coordinator, said.

Isaac Emmanuel, from Covestro, one of the world's leading polymer manufacturers which drives the Young Champions of the Earth Prize, worked alongside Laari to help him develop his idea further.

'It was very fulfilling to interact with Hyginus and share in igniting new avenues for his idea,' he said. 'Though the challenges are enormous, youth like him who are full of energy and hope keep up the positive spirit in all of us.'

We caught up with Laari to ask him where it all started.

What inspired you to come up with the idea of making eco-toilets from rice waste?

Reading about India's household sanitation and the tremendous improvements made during the Swachh Bharat Mission, to increase coverage of safe sanitation services in the country, have inspired me. Too often, the husks of rice-a major food in Ghana-are either burnt into ashes or dumped as solid...