A Sustainable Business Model for Public Toilets in Nepal

Public toilets are vital to the design of sustainable, inclusive cities. Without proper regulation, and management incentives public toilets suffer from inadequate maintenance and unhygienic conditions. Women and children are disproportionately affected by a lack of access to sanitary toilets, and are most likely to "hold on", resulting in urine and pathogen retention, bladder distension, and continence problems. They are also disproportionately affected by the negative nutritional consequences of Nepal’s toilet sanitation crisis. Lack of proper toilet access has been shown to increase diarrhoeal disease morbidity, while reducing macro nutrient absorption and young children are especially prone to negative health outcomes of malnutrition. Aerosan attempts to solve this problem by enabling existing public toilet operators to increase their profitability and scale their business. Aerosan is working on a proof of concept, a non-profit technological and business consulting entity that utilizes its resources and technical expertise to retrofit existing public toilets and assist in the implementation of management incentives that add value to both toilet users and operators. Aerosan aims to assist local public toilet operators, while acting as a bridge between private public operators, NGOs, and government. This includes the bundling of services (shop, resto, wifi), biogas systems, sanitation training and maintenance incentive programs to increase use and incentive for maintenance.