Cows to the rescue: How 3,350 truckloads of dung will save Railways' face

Each bio-toilet requires 60 litres-or three large bucketfuls-of inoculum, a mix of cow dung and water

The Indian Railways need to buy 3,350 truckloads of cow dung at Rs 42 crore in 2018 to “recharge”–add bacteria to activate degradation–leaky, malfunctioning ‘bio-toilets’ that it has fitted on 44.8% of trains and hopes to expand to all trains by 2018, according to IndiaSpend projections of data released by the national auditor to Parliament.

Bio-toilets are small-scale sewage-treatment systems beneath the toilet seat: Bacteria in a compost chamber digest human excreta, leaving behind water and methane. That’s how they were supposed to work.

The Comptroller and Auditor General’s (CAG) report on these bio-toilets echoes the