The study shows that the Bolivian legal framework is positively promoting ecological sanitation and that it consists mainly of legal normative regulations which are in line with Fundación Sumaj Huasi guidelines. Beneficiary households also have decent knowledge of the ecological toilets, but the habits needed for correct maintenance and use are lacking. This creates an institutional gap which affects the project negatively since the use of ecological toilets tends to diminish in the long run when the maintenance is difficult to sustain. In conclusion, developing new hygiene and sanitation habits resulted to be more problematic than developing new regulations as informal institutions tend to be harder to change than formal institutions. Ecosan in El Alto is implemented by dry ecological toilets which, if managed correctly, are an environmental safe way to recycle all human excreta and urine which is later used for crop production. The research for this paper took place in the peri-urban neighborhood District 7 in El Alto which is mainly inhabited by poor people migrating from rural areas. Since 2007, a SIDA-financed 5 ecosan-project managed by FSH has constructed 897 toilets in this neighborhood under the project named "WATER AND SANITATION FOR PERI-URBAN AREAS IN THE CITY OF EL ALTO, APPLYING ALTERNATIVE TECHNOLOGIES".

Bibliographic information

Bustillos, D. S. (2012). Formal and Informal Institutions Shaping the Use of Ecological Sanitation A Minor Field Study conducted in the city of El Alto, Bolivia Department of Political Science, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden

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Urine diversion dehydration toilets (UDDTs) Peri-urbanEnglish

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Bolivia

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