Li Longdan in central-south China's Hunan Province was so embarrassed two years ago when his nephew came to visit him and refused to use his toilet, which was a simple pit with a couple of planks placed across it.

"He kept shouting to me, 'Worms are all over your toilet'," Li recalled. Even though Li told his nephew that those worms didn't bite, the boy wouldn't use it whatsoever.

Today, Li is no longer embarrassed by his toilet. In fact, Li is very proud of it and ready to show it off.

Li is among the 313 families in Shiluo village, who have benefited from the sanitation projects funded by the European Commission's Humanitarian Aid Office (ECHO).

Implemented by the Red Cross Society of China and the International Federation of the China Red Crescent, the projects focus on improving the sanitation systems and promoting basic hygiene education to villagers in low-income communities in Hunan Province, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region in south China and southwestern Chongqing municipality.

"I'm very pleased to see the latrines are so well kept, said David Hill, ECHO's representative to China, during his visit to Shiluo village last week. "I'm glad the state of hygiene and state of health in the community have both improved."

In China, about 60 percent of the population lives in rural areas. The latrines they use are usually no more than a pit in the ground or a trough running to a storage pit in the corner of courtyards or behind buildings.

Rural latrines are a breeding ground for infectious diseases, especially during flooding when effluent washes from crude village latrines to contaminate surface and groundwater, said Yang Ziai, director of the Hunan Red Cross Society.

In 2004 ECHO provided 2 million euros for sanitation projects that have benefited 60,000 villagers in China. In Hunan alone, 8,700 toilets have been renovated.

The new toilets separate urine from feces. Urine can be used directly as fertilizer because its nitrate content replenishes nutrients in the soil, but solid waste is stored in one of the toilet's two chambers for a period of six months, neutralizing dangerous bacteria.

Farmers can go on doing what they have done for years -- using human waste as fertilizer -- but doing it safely, said Yang Ziai.
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(Xinhua News Agency July 22, 2005)